Four loading doses of aflibercept injections significantly improve macular fluid resolution in AMD patients: Study

A recent study investigated the effectiveness of four loading doses of aflibercept against three on macular fluid resolution and visual acuity (VA) in patients with exudative neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The key findings of this study were published in the Eye journal.

This multicenter, retrospective cohort study included treatment-naive nAMD eyes which received either three or four loading doses of aflibercept. This research extensively measured the changes in VA and fluid resolution on optical coherence tomography (OCT) by 8 weeks post-loading. The primary outcome focused on the proportion of patients with no intraretinal (IRF) and/or subretinal fluid (SRF) in the central 1 mm and the entire macula. The continuous variables were summarized using mean ± SD and the categorical variables were presented as n (%).

Out of the 995 patients analyzed, 355 eyes received four loading doses, while 640 eyes received three loading doses. The results expressed a clear advantage for the group which received four injections. By eight weeks post-loading, the proportion of eyes with neither IRF nor SRF at the fovea was 62.8% for the eyes that received four doses when compared to 56.1% for the three-dose group. The absence of IRF was 88.7% when compared to 87.9%, and SRF was absence at the fovea in 79.2% against 69.9% for the four and three-dose groups, respectively. When considering the entire macula, fluid resolution was also higher in the four-dose group. These differences were statistically significant (p = 0.0001) that indicated four loading doses of aflibercept are more effective in resolving macular fluid both at the fovea and across the whole macula.