Bevacizumab vs ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in Chinese patients.

AIM To compare the clinical efficacy of intravitreal injections of bevacizumab and ranibizumab for treating Chinese patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS Among 60 Chinese patients with exudative AMD (60 eyes), 28 received intravitreal bevacizumab injections (1.25mg) and 32 received intravitreal ranibizumab injections (0.5mg), once a month for 3 months and were followed for a total of 6 months. Monthly optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to determine whether the patients received additional treatments during the follow-up. We compared the baseline and 6-month follow-up values of mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) in both groups of patients. We also compared the occurrence of adverse events. RESULTS At the 6-month follow-up, the mean BCVA (logMAR) of the bevacizumab and ranibizumab treatment groups improved from the baseline measurements of 0.72±0.23 and 0.73±0.22 to 0.47±0.14 and 0.45±0.20, respectively (P<0.05 for both groups). However, the change was not significantly different between the two groups. As evaluated by OCT, CRT decreased from 366.71±34.72µm and 352±36.9µm at baseline to 250.86±41.51µm and 243.22±41.38µm in the bevacizumab and ranibizumab groups, respectively (P<0.05 for both groups). However, the change was not significantly different between the two groups. There were no severe local adverse reactions or systemic adverse events. CONCLUSION Intravitreal bevacizumab and ranibizumab have equivalent effects on BCVA and CRT and appeare safe over the short-term.