gms | German Medical Science

The existance of choroidal neovasularisation (CNV) is a common cause of low vision. The development of CNV is a complication of a variety of congenital or acquired ocular disorders. Within the last 4 years, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been established as a treatment option in patients with CNV secondary to age-related macular degeneration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcome and functional results of PDT with verteporfin in patients with not age-related CNV.

In all cases, PDT was performed as standart PDT without complications. Re-treatments were performed after 3 months. Indications for re-treatments were fluorescein leakage and intraretinal edema. Within the last 3 years, a total of 52 patients received PDT for CNV secondary to pathologic myopia, traumatic CNV, inflammatory CNV, idiopathic CNV, autosomal dominat drusen, retinal teleangiectasia and presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrom (POHS).

The mean follow-up time is 18.7 months, the mean age of the patients is 37.6 years. An average of 2.3 treatments were performed. 41 out of 47 patients (87.2%) have been stabilized in visual acuitiy and lost 3 or less lines of visual acuity. 22 patients (46.8%) have improved in visual acuity (1 or more lines) and 14 patients had moderate vision loss of 3 or more lines. No clinically relevant side effects or complications were observed.

PDT with verteporfin is a safe and effective treatment option for CNV not secondary to age-related macular degeneration. A majority of patients in this study achieved stabilization of vision after PDT. Still the treatment of CNV remains a challenging problem in ophthalmology.