Anti-VEGF Therapy Reducing Severe Vision Loss in AMD

Only introduced as a treatment for wet macular degeneration ten short years ago, Anti-VEGF injections are making a positive difference in the number of Americans going blind and moving to nursing homes. The wet form of macular degeneration advances more quickly than the dry form and previous treatments were not very effective in stopping the progression of the disease. Researchers from Duke University analyzed Medicare claims from 1994 to 2011 to compare vision outcomes and nursing home admissions of wet macular degeneration patients who were treated with either older therapies or the new anti-VEGF drugs. What researchers found is that vision loss was reduced by up to 41 percent in those who had received anti-VEGF injections and severe vision loss and blindness was reduced by 46 percent when compared to the older therapies. The anti-VEGF patients were also 19 percent less likely to be admitted to a nursing home during the two-year follow-up period compared to those who did not receive anti-VEGF injections.*