Almost 1 in 9 wAMD patients treated with anti-VEGF injections lost to follow-up

Approximately 1 in 9 patients with neovascular age related macular degeneration (AMD) treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections in the United States are lost to follow-up and 1 out of 7 patients are nonpersistent with treatment, according to IRIS Registry data.

Researchers identified increasing age, male sex, unilateral involvement, diabetes, Medicaid insurance and race/ethnicity as potential risk-factors.

In this retrospective cohort study, data from 156,327 treatment-naïve patients treated with anti-VEGF therapy from 2013 to 2015 and followed through 2019 were analyzed. Lost to follow-up and nonpersistence were defined as no follow up within 1 year and 6 months from the date of the last intravitreal injection, respectively.

Overall, 11.6% of patients were lost to follow up and 14.3% were nonpersistent.

The odds of lost to follow up and nonpersistence were greatest for patients between 81-84 years of age compared with patients ≤70 years of age.

Reference
Khurana RN, Li C, Lum F. Loss to Follow up in Patients with Neovascular Age Related Macular Degeneration treated with Anti-VEGF therapy in the United States in the IRIS® Registry. Ophthalmology. 2023;S0161-6420(23)00132-X. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2023.02.021. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36858288.