Economic and Quality of Life Benefits of Anti-VEGF Therapy

Abstract

Vision impairment and blindness create a significant impact on quality of life and loss of productivity. Health care expenditures for vision problems, including direct medical costs and indirect costs for support services and loss of productivity, amount to $139 billion annually. It is projected that by 2020, five million people will have visual impairment due to age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. VEGF inhibitor therapy has been shown to be a cost-effective treatment for age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema that has reduced the incidence of vision loss and can reduce the associated economic and societal cost.

Epidemiologic Trends of Chemical Ocular Burns in the United States

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] These conditions and associated sequelae can also affect quality of life generally, as well as reduce economic productivity. [1][2][3][14][15][16] Chemical burns to the eye are usually caused by either acidic or alkaline agents. [17][18][19] Although both are serious injuries, alkaline burns tend to have a more injurious profile owing to the ability of alkaline substances to cause cellular membrane lysis, rapidly penetrate the cornea and anterior chamber, and soften tissues.…”

Prediction of response to anti‐vascular endothelial growth factor treatment in diabetic macular oedema using an optical coherence tomography‐based machine learning method

“…It was estimated that patients needed nine to 11 times of repeat injections in the first year of treatment (Wells et al 2015) and up to 17 times in 5 years on average (Elman et al 2015). The cost of injections and OCT required might increase great healthcare burden (Happich et al 2008; Lee et al 2008; Shea et al 2008; Gonder et al 2014; Hodgson et al 2016). The frequent injections also reduce the life quality of patients due to more time spent on the road and a feeling of anxiety caused by injections (Hodgson et al 2016).…”

“…The cost of injections and OCT required might increase great healthcare burden (Happich et al 2008; Lee et al 2008; Shea et al 2008; Gonder et al 2014; Hodgson et al 2016). The frequent injections also reduce the life quality of patients due to more time spent on the road and a feeling of anxiety caused by injections (Hodgson et al 2016). Therefore, the prediction that helps doctors to make appropriate clinical decisions might also improve treatment efficiency, reduce the socioeconomic and humanistic burden and reallocate medical resources more efficiently at the same time.…”

Effect of Calcium Dobesilate (CaD) on Diabetic Macular Edema Treated by Intravitreal Ranibizumab

“…Although VEGF inhibitor therapy had been shown to be a cost-effective treatment for DME that had reduced the incidence of vision loss and could reduce the associated economic and social cost [8], continuous intravitreal injection treatment also brings a high economic burden to patients, especially in developing countries. Therefore, intravitreal anti-VEGF agents in combined with other therapy, such as intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide [9], or Rho-kinase inhibitor [10], or methotrexate [11], subthreshold micropulse laser [12,13], macular grid laser photocoagulation [14], sub-tenon steroid injection [15], or switching anti-VEGF treatment to intravitreal dexamethasone implant [6,[16][17][18], was investigated in DME patients.…”