[Real-life experiences with Brolucizumab in recalcitrant neovascular age-related macular degeneration]

Pivotal clinical trials have proven brolucizumab to be a potent intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drug in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Therefore, it seems to be a promising drug also in patients with recalcitrant nAMD. This article presents the results of patients who were switched to brolucizumab due to persistent fluid under previous anti-VEGF treatment.

In this study 21 eyes were retrospectively analyzed in which treatment was switched to brolucizumab due to persistent intraretinal (IRF), subretinal (SRF) and/or sub-retinal pigment epithelium (sub-RPE fluid) fluid despite long-term anti-VEGF treatment. Functional and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) data were investigated at diagnosis of nAMD (I), at switch to brolucizumab (II), 4 weeks after upload of brolucizumab (III) and at first reactivation of macular neovascularization (MNV, IV).

There were no significant changes in fluid distribution between (I) and (II). After upload of brolucizumab (III) a significant reduction of central subfield retinal thickness (CSRT, p = 0.0001), SRF (p = 0.004) and sub-RPE fluid (p = 0.04), but no visual acuity improvement (p = 0.56) were observed.

Intravitreal brolucizumab treatment can achieve significant reductions particularly of SRF and sub-RPE in patients refractory to previous anti-VEGF treatment. Future studies should further investigate the effects of brolucizumab in patients with recalcitrant nAMD.