Photodynamic therapy in the treatment of age related macular degeneration. An update on currently ongoing studies with Verteporfin (TAP/VIP trial)

Summary form only. The aim of these studies was to determine if photodynamic therapy with Verteporfin can safely reduce the risk of vision loss in patients with subfoveal, choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to age related macular degeneration (TAP trial) and pathologic myopia (VIP trial). The TAP trial revealed that PDT with Verteporfin can reduce the risk of moderate vision loss significantly compared to the placebo group. At the 12 month follow up, 46% of eyes assigned to verteporfin compared to 61% of eyes assigned to placebo had lost fewer than 15 letters of visual acuity. In the subgroup analyses, the visual acuity benefit was more clearly demonstrated when the area of classic CNV was more than 50% of the entire lesion in fluorescein angiography. There was no statistically significant differences when the area of classic CNV was less than 50%. Only a few ocular and systemic side effects had been reported. The most frequent ones were: transient visual disturbance, injection-side adverse events, photosensitivity reactions and infusion related lower back pain.