Inflammatory Choroidal Neovascular Membranes in Patients With Noninfectious Uveitis: The Place of Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Therapy

Inflammatory choroidal neovascularization (iCNV) is an infrequent but an important cause of visual morbidity in patients with non-infectious uveitis and mostly occurs in intermediate or posterior uveitis. Punctate inner choroiditis, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease and multifocal choroiditis are among the leading causes of uveitis entities resulting in iCNVs. The diagnosis and management of iCNVs still remain a challenge. Use of multimodal imaging techniques such as fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT-angiography may be necessary for the diagnosis of iCNVs. The treatment algorithm is not straightforward for iCNV. While control of the active inflammation with steroids and/or immunosuppressive agents is a key to success, various adjunctive treatment modalities such as thermal laser photocoagulation, photodynamic therapy and surgical membrane removal were also co-administered previously. Nowadays, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors have become the most commonly administered adjunctive treatment option as they provide better anatomical and functional outcome and the recurrence rate of CNV is relatively low. We hereby reviewed important clinical studies and case series on anti-VEGF administration in iCNVs and briefly overviewed their results.