EFFICACY AND VASCULAR REDEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR THERAPY FOR STAGE 2 EARLY-DIAGNOSED...

To report the efficacy of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (vascular endothelial growth factor) therapy in stage 2 familial exudative vitreoretinopathy diagnosed under 3 months of age, and to present the first evidence of continued peripheral vascular growth and its influencing factors.

This retrospective, consecutive study included 24 eyes (14 patients) between January 1, 2017, and December 1, 2024. Outcome measures were the response to anti-VEGF treatment and the vascular growth assessed by disc-vascularized border/disc-fovea.

The median age of patients at treatment was 10.5 days, with a median follow-up duration of 22 months. Nineteen (79%) eyes showed "Regression" and 3 (13%) demonstrated "Persistence." Among them, six eyes received additional laser photocoagulation. The remaining two (8%) eyes showed "Progression" and underwent lens-sparing vitrectomy. The generalized estimating equations model revealed that retinal vessels continued to grow progressively after treatment (β = 0.0010; 95% confidence intervals, 0.0005-0.0014; P < 0.001). The segmented mixed model demonstrated that the relative disc-vascularized border/disc-fovea ratio increased at a rate of 0.004 per week (95% confidence intervals, 0.0023-0.0056) until 35.4 weeks posttreatment.

Anti-VEGF therapy may effectively regress the high vascular activity of stage 2 early-diagnosed familial exudative vitreoretinopathy and may promote continued vascular growth toward the periphery.