In Case You Missed It: AAO 2022 Retina Hot Topics
GATHER 2: Avacincaptas pegol shows growth reduction in geographic atrophy
The investigation geographic atrophy (GA) therapy avacincaptas pegol effectively slowed the rate of GA growth in patients with the disease, according to data from the Phase 3 GATHER 2 trial.
This is the first time an investigation therapy in GA has achieved the 12-month prespecified, primary endpoint in phase 3 studies.
Longer treatment intervals possible with 8 mg aflibercept in DME
Data from the ongoing pivotal PHOTON trial presented at AAO 2022 demonstrated that vision was maintained at longer injection intervals with 8 mg intravitreal aflibercept in patients with diabetic macular edema.
Prefilled syringes reduce rate of endophthalmitis after intravitreal injection
Use of prefilled syringes of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor therapies for intravitreal injections significantly reduces the rate of endophthalmitis compared to the use of a traditional glass vial.
In this retrospective study, data from 294,862 injections were analyzed. Overall, there were 97 cases of endophthalmitis identified (0.033%), with 51 of them occurring in the vial group of aflibercept and ranibizumab (0.052%) and 24 occurring in the PFS group (0.018%).
Delay to first anti-VEGF injection leads to worse visual outcomes
A delay of >3 months from the time of diagnosis to treatment with first intravitreal aflibercept injection (IAI) was associated with lower visual gains in patients with macular edema due to central/branch retinal vein occlusion compared to first treatment <1 month from diagnosis, according to a poster presented at AAO 2022.
