Long-Term Visual Outcomes in Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration Patients With Unanticipated Gaps in Therapy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study's objec-tive was to describe long-term visual outcomes of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treated with intravitreal anti-vascular en-dothelial growth factor injections who were lost to follow-up and then resumed treatment with anti -vascular endothelial growth factor injections.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of eyes with at least 7 years of follow-up following the initiation of treatment for wet AMD with and without gaps in therapy.RESULTS: The baseline mean logMAR visual acuity was 0.65 +/- 0.5 (Snellen acuity 20/89) in eyes with gaps in therapy and 0.53 +/- 0.3 (20/68) in eyes without gaps. In the initial 7-year follow-up period, the eyes with gaps in therapy had significantly worse visual acuity (P < .001) and this remained significant when accounting for baseline visual acuity (P < .001).CONCLUSIONS: Gaps in intravitreal injection therapy for exudative AMD were negatively associated with visual acuity. Adherence to therapy is important to address in the care of patients with exudative AMD.