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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

About this resource:

Systematic Review

Source: The Cochrane Collaborative

Last Reviewed: March 2019

Workgroups: Vision Workgroup

In this Cochrane systematic review, the Cochrane Collaborative found that anti‐vascular endothelial growth factor (anti‐VEGF) medicines — pegaptanib, ranibizumab and bevacizumab — improve vision and reduce vision loss in people with neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (wet AMD). People treated with anti-VEGF medicines also had improvements in eye structure. In addition, researchers found that participants who took ranibizumab or bevacizumab for at least 1 year had similar vision outcomes. The main difference between treatments was cost (bevacizumab was cheaper), and very few serious side effects occurred. 

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Objectives related to this resource (1)

Reduce vision loss from age-related macular degeneration — V‑07
Baseline only

Suggested Citation

1.

Solomon, S. D., Lindsley, K., Vedula, S. S., Krzystolik, M. G., & Hawkins, B. S. (2014). Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2014 (8). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005139.pub4.