Effect of combined treatment with sub-Tenon injection of triamcinolone acetonide and photodynamic therapy in Japanese patients with age-related macular degeneration.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the benefit of the combination of a single sub-Tenon injection of triamcinolone acetonide (STTA) with photodynamic therapy (PDT) for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Japanese patients.


METHODS
The medical records of 111 eyes of 111 patients were reviewed retrospectively. Forty-five eyes underwent combined treatment with STTA and PDT, and 66 eyes underwent PDT alone. Time to vision loss, defined as a change of 0.3 or more logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) units, and time to retreatment were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. Cox regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratios for those end points to investigate clinical risk characteristics.


RESULTS
Patients who underwent combined STTA with PDT had a significantly lower risk of retreatment than did those who underwent PDT alone (hazard ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.99). This beneficial association was found only in patients without polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) lesions. However, combined treatment with STTA and PDT had no beneficial effect in reducing visual loss when compared with treatment with PDT alone.


CONCLUSIONS
Combined treatment with STTA and PDT had a beneficial effect in reducing retreatment of AMD in Japanese patients. Those who had PCV lesions did not benefit from this additional treatment.
Department of Ophthalmology, Shinoda General Hospital, Yamagata, Japan. kokokiy@shinoda-hp.or.jp
Koko
K
Saito
Teiko
T
Yamamoto
Daijiro
D
Tsuchiya
Ryo
R
Kawasaki
Shion
S
Haneda
Hidetoshi
H
Yamashita
D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003238:Connective Tissue; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D019233:Retreatment; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014222:Triamcinolone Acetonide / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology
D005938:Glucocorticoids; D014222:Triamcinolone Acetonide