Aflibercept compared with dexamethasone in diabetic macular edema

Diabetic macular edema is a frequent pathology that causes gradual deterioration of visual acuity, which does not have a standardized treatment. The anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs and corticosteroids are widely used, especially aflibercept and dexamethasone, respectively, but it is unclear which one is best.

We searched in Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

No evidence that compared the interventions directly in the population of interest was found, so systematic reviews that provide an estimate of the effect indirectly using network meta-analysis were selected. We identified two systematic reviews that together included four primary studies, all randomized trials. We concluded that we are uncertain whether aflibercept compared to dexamethasone improves visual acuity or is safer, as the certainty of the evidence has been assessed as very low.