Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access

Abstract

Treat and Extend Versus Treat and Observe Regimens in Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration Patients Treated with Ranibizumab: 3-year Surveillance Period

Pilar Calvo, Yao Wang, Antonio Ferreras, Wai-Ching Lam, Robert Devenyi and Michael H Brent

Objective: To compare the 3-year outcomes of two different dosing regimens used for wet age-related macular degeneration patients treated exclusively with ranibizumab.
Methods: A Treat and extend (TAE) dosing group (n=30) and a treat and observe (TAO) dosing group (n=30) were retrospectively recorded. Survival rates (SR) based on visual acuity (VA) outcomes were calculated and analyzed. The central retinal thickness measured with spectral domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (OCT) and number of intravitreal injections performed in both groups were also compared.
Results: At 36 months, Kaplan-Meier SRs were 90.9% for TAE and 89.7% for TAO (loss<0.3 units logMAR). VA improved in 42.4% and 24.1%, while 33.4% and 62.1% remained stable for TAE and TAO groups, respectively. No final VA differences were found between both therapeutic strategies (p>0.05, log-rank test). No differences were found in the final number of injections received: 20.31±6.6 in TAE group vs. 18.41 ± 7.1 in TAO group (p=0.19).
Conclusions: Both approaches showed similar number of injections and visual outcomes.