Abstract :
Background: To understand the clinical practice pattern of general ophthalmologists in the management of retinal diseases. Also, aimed to explore the ophthalmologist’s perspective towards patient compliance and unmet need in the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).
Materials and Methods: A total of 108 ophthalmologists participated in this cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey. A paper-based questionnaire with a tool of twelve questions, with response options ranging on a five-point Likert scale of ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ was provided to participants.
Results: Out of 108, 95.4% ophthalmologists confirmed that they were commonly consulted for nAMD amongst the different retinal disorders (RDs). The majority of respondents (87%) confirmed that 60% or fewer patients continue the treatment for a year. About 81.5% of ophthalmologists stated that fluid (Intra-retinal fluid, Sub-retinal fluid) on optical coherence tomography (OCT) was an extremely important parameter for disease activity. The survey revealed that injection frequency was the factor for non-compliance in majority of (>50%) patients. More than 64% of respondents opined that improved efficacy (70.4%), reduced treatment burden (64.8%), and longer acting agents/sustained delivery (64.8%) are the most critical unmet needs for nAMD patients.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that, in addition to functional outcomes i.e. visual acuity, ophthalmologists also considered retinal fluid and central retinal thickness as important parameters for treatment-related decisions. Ophthalmologists suggested that there is a need to develop longer-acting agents with improved efficacy which may help in reducing treatment burden in nAMD management.
Key Message: Longer acting anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VGEF) agents with improved efficacy may help in reducing the treatment burden in nAMD management.
Keyword :
Neovascular age- related macular degeneration, Ophthalmologists, Retinal disorders, Retinal fluid, Survey, Trends and practices.