Two year outcomes of as needed brolucizumab therapy in exudative age related macular degeneration with or without pachychoroid phenotype

Brolucizumab is a second-generation vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor. To date, there have been no reports comparing treatment outcomes between exudative age-related macular degeneration with or without the pachychoroid phenotype using a second-generation VEGF inhibitor. The present study compared two-year as-needed brolucizumab treatment outcomes in patients with and without pachychoroid phenotypes. Sixty-six eyes completed two years of follow-up, and 14 and 52 eyes were classified into the pachychoroid and non-pachychoroid phenotypes, respectively. At 24 months, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) significantly improved in both groups, from 0.30 ± 0.29 to 0.12 ± 0.21 in the pachychoroid phenotype and 0.43 ± 0.36 to 0.31 ± 0.37 in the non-pachychoroid phenotype (p = 0.014 and 0.0013, respectively). At the 24-month follow-up, there were significantly fewer eyes requiring retreatment in the pachychoroid phenotype than in the non-pachychoroid phenotype (50% vs. 83%, p = 0.03). Although the number of additional injections was comparable between the two groups in the first 12 months (1.2 ± 1.4 vs. 1.7 ± 1.6, p = 0.29), the number of additional injections was significantly lower in the pachychoroid phenotype than in the non-pachychoroid phenotype (1.5 ± 2.4 vs. 3.2 ± 2.6, p = 0.0098) in the second 12 months. In the 24-month as-needed brolucizumab treatment group, the response to the pachychoroid phenotype was favorable, with significant BCVA improvement and fewer additional injections, particularly in the second 12 months.