Hernández-Bel L, et al. - Authors compared the intravitreous aflibercept vs dexamethasone implant followed by aflibercept (sequential treatment group) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME). Compared to aflibercept only, a promising alternative that can reduce the treatment burden in the first year without statistically significant differences in terms of visual gain and decreased MT was sequential treatment in DME, starting with dexamethasone and followed by aflibercept.

Methods

• Experts performed an observational retrospective study in naïve DME patients, 15 treated only with aflibercept (a monthly injection for the first 5 consecutive doses, followed by an injection every 2 months), and 15 treated with a single dexamethasone implant followed by bimonthly aflibercept.
• They evaluated the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), and qualitative features as well as adverse events at baseline and at 2, 6, and 12 months.

Results

• Findings suggested that BCVA increased from 70.8 ± 4.1 to 83.5 ± 2.7 letters with aflibercept and from 75.6 ± 2.7 to 86.5 ± 2.5 with sequential treatment (p=0.551).
• With aflibercept, CMT decreased from 411 ± 26.1 to 288.1 ± 10.5 and from 411.4 ± 24.3 to 260.8 ± 17.9 in the sequential treatment group.
• In terms of visual gain and decreased MT, the differences between the 2 groups, were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).
• Researchers performed 9 and 6 injections and 9 and 7 monitoring visits.