Comparison of the effect between pegaptanib and ranibizumab on exudative age-related macular degeneration with small lesion size

PURPOSE: To compare the effect of pegaptanib versus ranibizumab on exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with small lesion size. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 81 eyes from 78 patients with exudative AMD treated and followed up over 12 months. Patients with baseline best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) under 20/400 and with a greatest linear dimension of lesion over 4500 μm were excluded from the study. Twenty-six eyes from 25 patients were treated with three consecutive intravitreal injections of pegaptanib (IVP group) and 55 eyes from 54 patients were treated with three consecutive ranibizumab injections (IVR group). Each therapy was repeated as needed. The alteration in BCVA was evaluated in the IVP and IVR groups. RESULTS: No differences were detected in baseline parameters between the IVP and IVR groups. The mean BCVA (logMAR) at month 1, 3, 6 and 12 after the initial treatment was improved from baseline in the IVP group (−0.095, −0.17, −0.18 and −0.18, respectively) and in the IVR group (−0.077, −0.15, −0.17 and −0.11, respectively), which was statistically significant. There was no difference in the change in mean BCVA between IVP and IVR groups at the same time periods. CONCLUSIONS: The visual outcome of IVP was equivalent with IVR in exudative AMD with small lesion size.