[Clinical experience with pegaptanib in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD)]

Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy with pegaptanib has proven to be safe and effective for the treatment of neovascular AMD in large clinical studies. We report the clinical experience with pegaptanib in an ophthalmology practice in Germany.

27 eyes of 27 patients with neovascular AMD underwent treatment with pegaptanib. Ten patients received four injections, 16 patients received 3 injections and one patient received a single injection of pegaptanib. At each visit, visual acuity was measured before and intraocular pressure (IOP) both before and after an injection. All patients had a fluorescein angiography (FA) at both baseline and final visit. OCT assessment was not performed.

Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy was well tolerated, there was only one case with a minor ocular complication (a mild form of endophthalmitis). 89 % of patients in the current series lost fewer than 3 lines over the course of 24 weeks. 33 % of the patients gained visual acuity. In some cases there was a distinct reduction of the activity of the lesion in tFA.

Intravitreal therapy with pegaptanib is both safe and effective, it is notable that stabilisation of vision occurred although the patients in the present analysis tended to have relatively progressed disease at the onset of the treatment.