title: Five-year results of photodynamic therapy with verteporfin for Japanese patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the treatment outcome of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in Japanese patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) followed for 5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed clinical charts of 51 patients with AMD. Thirty-one eyes of typical AMD (tAMD) and 20 eyes of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) vision of all AMD patients was 0.807 at the baseline examination and 0.937 at the 5 year examination. Mean visual acuity letter score loss is similar between patients with tAMD (-7.25) and with PCV (-5.36) at the month 60 examination. The patients with lesions of classic choroidal neovascularization (CNV) had 10.0 letters loss, but the patients with lesions of occult CNV had only 1.43 letters loss. The number of retreatments peaked in year 1 and declined immediately for patients with tAMD, but patients with PCV had significantly more frequent retreatments in the years 3 and 4 than patients with tAMD (P = 1.48 × 10(-2), 5.96 × 10(-3), respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Visual outcomes in patients with Japanese patients with AMD treated with PDT after 5-year follow up were worse than that in short-term follow up reported previously. In addition, the difference in visual prognosis between tAMD and PCV was not demonstrated after long-term follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Saitama Medical University, Iruma, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuchihashi
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueyama
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoneya
keywords: age-related macular degeneration; photodynamic therapy; polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy; visual outcomes