MONTREAL -- Patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) maintained improvements in visual acuity and retinal anatomy for up to 4 years with the ranibizumab port delivery system (PDS; Susvimo), according to updated results from a randomized trial.
After 208 weeks of follow-up, patients initially assigned to the PDS had a 9.4-letter improvement from baseline in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and a 211-µm decrease in baseline central subfield thickness (CST). About half of the patients had at least a two-step improvement in the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS). Patients who switched from monthly intravitreal ranibizumab (Lucentis) to the PDS at 64 weeks had similar improvement in BCVA, CST, and DRSS. Ocular adverse events were well defined and manageable, with no new safety signals during long-term follow-up.
During treatment with the PDS, 95% of patients required no supplemental anti-VEGF therapy outside of the 6-month device refill interval, reported Luke Lindsell, OD, MD, of the Cincinnati Eye Institute, at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.
"Continuous anti-VEGF delivery via the PDS platform has the potential to transform the care of patients with DME by preserving vision and reducing treatment burden," said Lindsell. "Approximately 75% of patients in all treatment groups were able to regain and preserve driving-level vision, which is critical in this predominantly working-age group."
