Treatment patterns, visual acuity and quality‐of‐life outcomes of the WAVE study–A noninterventional study of ranibizumab treatment for neovascular age‐related …
RP Finger, P Wiedemann, F Blumhagen… - Acta …, 2013 - Wiley Online Library
Purpose: To evaluate effectiveness, tolerability and safety of repeated intravitreal injections
of 0.5 mg ranibizumab for the treatment of neovascular age‐related macular degeneration in
routine medical practice in Germany. Methods: A noninterventional study with 3470 patients
treated in 274 medical centres according to German guidelines, with monthly intravitreal
injections of 0.5 mg ranibizumab during upload (3 months) followed by a maintenance
phase (9 months) with reinjections if medically indicated. Results: Mean injection rate was …
of 0.5 mg ranibizumab for the treatment of neovascular age‐related macular degeneration in
routine medical practice in Germany. Methods: A noninterventional study with 3470 patients
treated in 274 medical centres according to German guidelines, with monthly intravitreal
injections of 0.5 mg ranibizumab during upload (3 months) followed by a maintenance
phase (9 months) with reinjections if medically indicated. Results: Mean injection rate was …
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate effectiveness, tolerability and safety of repeated intravitreal injections of 0.5 mg ranibizumab for the treatment of neovascular age‐related macular degeneration in routine medical practice in Germany.
Methods: A noninterventional study with 3470 patients treated in 274 medical centres according to German guidelines, with monthly intravitreal injections of 0.5 mg ranibizumab during upload (3 months) followed by a maintenance phase (9 months) with reinjections if medically indicated.
Results: Mean injection rate was 4.34 (SE = 0.05; median = 3.0). Best‐corrected visual acuity (BCVA) remained stable (mean change 0.02 LogMAR, SE = 0.01, p = 0.0169) and central retinal thickness (CRT) decreased (by −78.9 μm, SE = 2.95 μm, p < 0.0001). The NEI‐VFQ 25 summary score showed a positive stabilization with a mean change of 0.73 (SE = 0.37, p = 0.0501) compared with baseline. Adverse events were documented for 6.5% of the patients with 3.9% of these events being classified as serious.
Conclusions: The number of administered intravitreal injections of ranibizumab over the first year of treatment was very low but still achieved a stabilization of BCVA, a reduction in CRT and maintained vision‐related quality of life. The management of patients with neovascular AMD in Germany needs to be improved to achieve better treatment results.
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