One-year results and the change of vascular morphology of retinal-retinal anastomosis in patients with type 3 macular neovascularization after intravitreal administration of faricimab in the “treat and extend, then fix” regimen

We evaluated the efficacy of intravitreal injections of faricimab and the change of vascular morphology of retinal-retinal anastomosis (RRA) after treatment for patients with type 3 macular neovascularization (MNV). We retrospectively reviewed 12 consecutive eyes of 10 Japanese patients (mean age, 80.7 years) with different stages of treatment-naïve type 3 MNV with original method of “treat and extend then fixed” regimen over 12 months follow-up. The mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) levels improved significantly ( P  < 0.01) from 0.99 at baseline to 0.63 at 12 months. All eleven eyes detected RRA by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) findings at baseline showed the improvement of discontinuation on RRA by OCTA findings after treatment. Progression of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophy or newly developing RPE atrophy was seen three eyes (25%) with a mean of 1.0 line improvement of BCVA due to being RPE atrophy without involving the fovea. All 12 eyes achieved dry macula and showed no complications at month 12. These results indicate that intravitreal faricimab injections significantly improved the VA, achieved dry macula and nearly normalization of vessels on the RRA in patients with type 3 MNV during the 12 months of the study.