Three-Year Outcomes of Aflibercept Treatment for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Evidence from a Clinical Setting.

Introduction: To report 3-year treatment outcomes with intravitreal aflibercept injections for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in routine clinical practice.

Methods: This was a retrospective, single-centre, non-randomized interventional case series analysis. Data from treatment-naïve patients with nAMD treated between 1 October 2013 and 31 February 2014 were included in the analysis. Data including age, gender, vision acuity (VA) measured on Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study charts (ETDRS) and injection numbers were recorded. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) data including presence or absence of macular fluid and automated central subfield macular thickness (CSMT) at year 1, 2 and 3 were also recorded.

Results: Of the 157 eyes of 148 patients treated, data from 108 eyes of 102 patients were available at 3-year follow-up. The mean (± SD) age was 80.6 ± 8.3 years with a mean of 154.5 ± 5.4 weeks follow-up. The mean VA changed from 54.4 ± 16 letters at baseline to 60.3 ± 18.1 letters (VA gain 5.9 ± 13.8 letter gain) at 1 year, to 60.8 ± 17.4 letters (VA gain 6.4 ± 14.9 letters) at 2 years and to 61.0 ± 16.6 letters (VA gain 6.6 ± 15.4 letters) at 3 years. The reduction in CSMT was 77.9 ± 101.4 µm with absence of macular fluid in 71% of eyes. The total mean number of injections was 15.9 ± 6.1 at year 3.

Conclusion: The results suggest that good long-term morphological and functional treatment outcomes can be achieved using aflibercept for nAMD in a clinical setting.