photodynamic therapy for Taiwanese patients with pathologic myopia: a 2-year follow-up

To examine the efficacy of photodynamic therapy with verteporfin (VPDT) for treatment of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in patients with pathologic myopia.

In a prospective study, adult patients (18 years of age or older) with new onset subfoveal CNV were treated in two tertiary centers with the standard protocol of VPDT. Snellen best-corrected visual acuity was measured at baseline and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, and 24 months after VPDT. Stratified analyses for single and multiple treatments and different age groups were performed by paired t-tests, and the results were compared with baseline findings.

Thirty-three patients with single VPDT and 13 patients with multiple treatments were enrolled for analysis. Significant improvement in measurement of visual acuity was found after 24 months of follow-up for the group with single therapy. For patients receiving multiple treatments, an improving trend was not as clear. In prognosis analysis by age groups in the single-treatment group, the younger group had better mean visual acuity at the end of the 24-month study period than the older group. Improvement was much more evident in the younger group, although it was not statistically significant at every follow-up time point.

In patients with response to single VPDT, visual acuity significantly improved over a 2-year period. In patients receiving multiple treatments, improvement was not as distinctive, suggesting alternative treatment options might be relevant for this subgroup.