Ten-year survival trends of neovascular age-related macular degeneration at first presentation

Background: To describe 10-year trends in visual outcomes, anatomical outcomes, and treatment burden of patients receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of treatment-naïve, first-affected eyes with nAMD started on ranibizumab before January 1, 2009. The primary outcome was time to best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) falling ≤ 35 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters after initiating anti-VEGF therapy. Secondary outcomes included time to BCVA reaching ≥ 70 letters; proportion of eyes with BCVA ≥ 70 and ≤ 35 letters at 10 years; mean trend of BCVA and central retinal thickness (CRT) over 10 years; and mean number of injections.

Results: For our cohort of 103 patients, Kaplan-Meier analyses demonstrated median time to BCVA reaching ≤35 and ≥70 letters were 37.8 (95% CI 22.2-65.1) and 8.3 (95% CI 4.8-20.9) months after commencing anti-VEGF therapy,...