ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses human clinical trials of intraocular drug delivery to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is the leading cause of blindness in patients older than 60 years of age in the United States. Patients were 50 years of age or older and had subfoveal predominantly classic choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The submacular surgical trials are investigating the outcome for surgical removal of the choroidal neovascular membranes in patients with AMD. Triamcinolone has been combined with laser photocoagulation to treat CNV associated with AMD. Verteporfin ocular PDT has been combined with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide to treat CNV associated with AMD. A small, randomized clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a single 4 mg intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection for neovascular AMD. Multicenter, randomized trials are currently underway to compare verteporfin ocular PDT alone to ocular PDT with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide for neo-vascular AMD.
