Background: The primary aim was to investigate outcome of the decision making on duration of injection intervals between injection visits over the first 2 years of a treat and extend regimen.
Method: Consecutive patients receiving Aflibercept for treatment naïve neovascular age-related macular degeneration between 01.01.2016 and 15.07.2017 were identified from our departmental register. Retrospective data collected on all visits over 24 months were classified into three groups: (A) Without Interval Decision Events (IDE)" Injection only" (B) IDE resulting in injection intervals of <5 weeks and (C) IDE resulting in intervals of >5 weeks. The primary outcome was number of successful IDE relative to the total visits in Group C. Successful decision making was defined as absence of worsening of visual acuity (>5 L) or central retinal thickness (>50 microns) at the subsequent visit. Secondary visual and anatomical outcomes at 24 months were also evaluated.
Results: Data from 56 eyes of 50 patients were included in the study. Visual acuity improved by +7.11 L at 24 months. Forty one patients with unilateral therapy made 721 visits: 280 visits (38.8%) were group A; 164 visits (22.8%) were group B and 277 visits (38.4%) were group C. Average interval in Group C was 8.9 weeks (range 5-15). The success rate of extension was 95.31% (264/277 visits).
Conclusion: These metrics for evaluating the decision making aspect of disease activity monitoring may be useful for monitoring performance and have given us a more realistic view and expectations of what can be achieved using this regime to optimise the timing of injections.
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