Purpose: To evaluate the incidence, outcomes, and risk factors for hemorrhagic complications in eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) following photodynamic therapy (PDT).
Methods: Medical records of 94 eyes of 86 consecutive patients with PCV who underwent PDT between January 2007 and December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. The diagnosis of PCV was based on clinical features and indocyanine green angiography. Eyes were treated with PDT monotherapy or a combination of PDT plus anti-vascular endothelial growth factor. PDT was performed at (standard [SFPDT] or reduced fluence RFPDT).
Results: Ninety-four eyes had 119 PDT treatment sessions (mean: 1.3 sessions). Mean presenting vision was 0.46 ± 0.44 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR). Following PDT, ten eyes (11%) of nine patients had hemorrhagic complications such as subretinal hemorrhage (SRH; n = 5), subretinal pigment epithelium (RPE) hemorrhage (n = 1), breakthrough vitreous hemorrhage (BVH; n = 3), and SRH with sub-RPE hemorrhage and BVH (n = 1). Median interval to hemorrhage following PDT was 2 months. Age (P = 0.842), duration of symptoms (P = 0.352), number of laser spots (P = 0.219), and laser spot size (LSS) (P = 0.096) were not significantly associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic complications. Female gender was associated with reduced risk of hemorrhage (P = 0.045). SFPDT was significantly associated with increased risk of hemorrhage (P = 0.026). The probability of developing hemorrhagic complications in SFPDT group was 0.24 compared to 0.07 in RFPDT group (P = 0.039). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed SFPDT as the only significant risk factor for hemorrhage following PDT (odds ratio 5.3, 95% confidence interval 1.1-24.8, P = 0.03). Mean final vision was 0.61 ± 0.53 logMAR at mean follow-up of 33 months (median = 22 months; range = 2-157 months).
Conclusion: Age, LSS, number of laser spots, preexisting hemorrhages, or use of anticoagulants were not associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic complications. SFPDT was significantly associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic complications in such eyes.