Photodynamic therapy with verteporfin for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Abstract

Background To describe the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin for the treatment of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). Methods This is a retrospective interventional case series of 41 eyes of 40 patients with angiographic evidence of PCV, which had PDT with verteporfin. Pre-treatment best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was measured and patients were followed up for at least 12 months with BCVA recorded at each visit. Results The mean follow-up time was 23.7 months. Seven of 10 eyes (70%) with juxtafoveal lesions and 17 of 31 eyes (54.8%) with subfoveal lesions had stable or improved vision (loss of p3 lines) at the last follow-up. The mean number of treatments was 1.90. Thirty-three eyes (80.5%) had dry, quiescent scars at last follow-up, six eyes (14.6%) had persistent leakage, and two eyes (4.9%) had evidence of choroidal neovascularisation. Conclusion Our results indicate that 24 of 41 eyes (58.5%) with serosanguinous maculopathy secondary to PCV treated with PDT had stable or improved vision (loss of p3 lines) after a mean follow-up of almost 2 years. However, in view of the retrospective nature of this study, the true efficacy of PDT for PCV would have to be evaluated with a larger randomised controlled trial.

Verteporfin PDT for non-standard indications—a review of current literature

“…Numerous case series reported favourable anatomical and VA outcomes for PCV patients treated with verteporfin PDT [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Total polyp regression following verteporfin PDT has been reported for up to 21 of 22 eyes (95%) at the 12-month follow-up of individual case series [11], and many patients had stable or improved VA (Table 1), comparing favourably with the natural history of PCV.…”

Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy

“…56,72,109 Lee et al 72 reported 24 of 41 (58.5%) eyes with stable or improved vision (mean follow-up 24 months) and hypothesized that this relatively low rate of success could be attributed to the inclusion of patients with prior laser therapy. Leal et al concluded that, although there was a trend toward progressive loss of BCVA in their prospective study, this was not statistically significant: at 3 years, 74.1% of eyes still had no significant vision loss.…”

Factors Predictive of Visual Acuity Outcomes 1 Year After Photodynamic Therapy in Japanese Patients With Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy

“…Previous studies reported that visual outcomes after PDT for PCV were unaffected by the presence of a PED 20 but worse in eyes associated with type 2 choroidal neovascularization (CNV). 21 Because most studies on the treatment of PDT for PCV had a relatively small number of eyes, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] we conducted a prospective study of 220 eyes with PCV followed for 1 year after the primary PDT treatment to confirm the factors predictive of VA outcomes 1 year after the primary application of PDT for PCV.…”