Comparing outcomes in patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration treated with two different doses of primary intravitreal bevacizumab: results of the Pan-American Collaborative Retina Study Group (PACORES) at the 12-month follow-up.

PURPOSE: To compare the total number of injections and the anatomic and best-corrected visual acuity (VA) response after injecting 1.25 or 2.5 mg of bevacizumab as needed in patients with primary choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at 12 months.

METHODS: This was a retrospective, interventional, comparative multicenter study of 60 eyes treated with intravitreal bevacizumab (35 eyes, 1.25 mg; 25 eyes, 2.5 mg).

RESULTS: The mean number of injections per eye was 3.8 in the 1.25-mg group and 3.2 in the 2.5-mg group (P = 0.2752). At 12 months, in the 1.25-mg group, 16 (46%) eyes gained > or =3 lines of Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) VA and seven (20%) lost > or =3 lines of ETDRS VA. In the 2.5-mg group, 11 (44%) eyes improved by > or =3 lines, and four (16%) lost > or =3 lines (P = 1.000). At 12 months, in the 1.25-mg group, the mean central macular thickness decreased from 419 +/- 201 microm at baseline to 268 +/- 96 microm, compared with a decrease from 388 +/- 162 to 296 +/- 114 microm in the 2.5-mg group (P = 0.7896).

CONCLUSION: There were no statistically significant differences between the two dose groups with regard to the number of injections, anatomic and VA outcomes.