Outcomes of intravitreal aflibercept therapy for in naive patients with diabetic macular edema

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of aflibercept therapy in patients with diabetic macular edema without any prior treatment. Materials and methods: Between January 2017 and December 2018, 127 eyes of 75 patients with newly diagnosed diabetic macular edema treated with aflibercept were included in the study. Records of the patients were retrospectively reviewed. Visual acuity, central macular thickness and optical coherence tomography findings were recorded before and after treatment. Results: Seventy - five patients with a range of 21-79 years were included in the study. 38 of the patients were male (50.7%) and 37 were female (49.3%). The mean age of the patients was 61.17 ± 10.37 years. The mean follow-up period was 10,24 ± 6,27 months. The best corrected visual acuity of the patients before treatment was 0.57 ± 0.43 logMAR and 0.34 ± 0.35 logMAR at the end of the follow-up period. (p<0,001) The increase in visual acuity was statistically significant. Central macular thickness was found to be statistically significant decreasing from 397.82 ± 162.43 μm to 311 ± 116.80 μm during the follow-up period. (p<0,001) The final visual acuity and central macular thickness of the cases with serous macular detachment were found to be similar to the group that was not detected. In patients with vitreoretinal interface disorder, the response to treatment was poor. No serious systemic or local side effects were observed. Conclusion: Intravitreal aflibercept treatment is an effective and safe treatment option for newly diagnosed diabetic macular edema and can be used in first line therapy. Treatment response is lower in patients with vitreoretinal interface disorder. Additional surgery or medical treatment may be needed in these cases. Keywords: aflibercept, central macular thickness, diabetic macular edema, visual acuity.