Glaucoma progression in patients receiving intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate how often glaucoma and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) occur in the same patient and to evaluate whether glaucoma progression is faster in eyes treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF medications for nAMD. MethodsThis single-centre retrospective real-world data (RWD) consists of medical records of 6314 glaucoma and 2166 nAMD patients treated in 2008-2017 in Tays Eye Centre, Finland. To study glaucoma progression, changes in visual fields (mean deviation [MD], dB/year), IOP (mmHg/year) and fundus photographs (progression, yes/no) were compared in glaucoma eyes with and without anti-VEGF treatment for nAMD and >= 1 year follow-up. ResultsDuring the 10-year period, 147 patients with glaucoma received intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment for nAMD corresponding to 2% of glaucoma and 7% of nAMD patients. The mean change in MD was -0.70dB/year (SD 1.8) vs. -0.27dB/year (SD 1.7) (p =0.027) in glaucoma eyes with (n =37) and without (n =4304) anti-VEGF injections, respectively. In patients with bilateral glaucoma and unilateral nAMD treated with anti-VEGF injections (n =20), MD declined at -0.62dB/year (SD 1.9) vs 0.33dB/year (SD 1.5) (p =0.654), and glaucoma progression was detected in 14/20 vs 10/20 (p =0.219) fundus photographs in eyes with anti-VEGF treatment compared with their untreated fellow eyes. ConclusionnAMD and glaucoma were found co-existing in the same eye at rates that were similar to the age-corrected prevalence of the two diseases in the general population. Our results suggest that intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment for nAMD may accelerate glaucoma progression.