ABSTRACT
The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) is founded on evidence from a series of well-designed clinical trials. A total of 128 patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were treated with at least a single course of PDT, including 31 patients who later received multiple courses of PDT with regimen 2 or 4. Verteporfin PDT was effective at reducing angiographic leakage from CNV. Thirty-eight of the 128 patients receiving a single course of PDT had an adverse event in the treatment eye and 31 of the cases involved events that were judged to be possibly, or probably, treatment-related. The efficacy of verteporfin PDT in reducing the risk of vision loss in patients with subfoveal CNV due to AMD was investigated in multicenter, double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomized trials. Angiographic assessments confirmed the beneficial effects of verteporfin PDT.
