Bob Wang, Stewart Lake, Niladri Saha

Purpose: To assess the timeframe between Ranibizumab prescription and initial treatment, in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration(AMD). Impact of delayed treatment on visual acuity and cause of delays were also evaluated.
Method: This retrospective study involved reviewing the clinical history of all patients who were administereda Ranibizumab injection between January 2010 and March 2010. Inclusion criterion included intravitrealRanibizumab cycles for treatment of subfoveal
exudative AMD. Each cycle commenced with diagnosis of exudative AMD and prescription of Ranibizumab; followed by three, monthly Ranibizumab injections; and concluded with a review appointment.
Results: The study involved 64 patients, with 75 eyes and 170 cycles of treatment. 30 cycles had no injection delays, while 140 cycles had delays due to various causes. 52% of delayed cycles were associated with vision loss between Ranibizumab prescription and initial injection. In this delay period, the mean duration was 17.6 days and the mean change in visual acuity was ?2.1 letters. Additionally, in the delayed group, the mean duration of each cycle and the mean change in visual acuity following each cycle was
126.3 days and +3.6 letters respectively. For the nodelay
group, this was 101.9 days and +4.7 letters. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean change in visual acuity following each cycle between the groups (p = 0.693).
Conclusion: A short delay in treatment with Ranibi-zumab in patients diagnosed with exudative AMD does not result in a statistically significant loss of visual acuity.