To evaluate the long-term clinical outcomes of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tears after intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agent for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The authors performed a retrospective chart review of 13 eyes of 13 patients who developed RPE tears after intravitreal anti-VEGF injection between February 2009 and June 2013. We investigated continuation of the treatment after tear, visual acuity, presence of cystoid macular edema, and central macular thickness (CMT) using optical coherence tomography (OCT) before and after treatment and visual outcomes depending on foveal sparing.

After RPE tear, 12 of 13 patients continued injection of an anti-VEGF agent. The average number of injections was 6.08 ± 5.18. Mean visual acuity immediately after tear was 1.65 ± 0.8 log MAR, and that at the last visit was 1.82 ± 0.88 log MAR. Nine eyes with macular edema in OCT continued receiving injection, and improvement of macular edema was observed in four eyes at the final visit. The final visual acuity of patients with foveal involvement was 2.17 ± 0.49 log MAR, which was worse than the 1.51 ± 1.06 log MAR in patients without foveal involvement, although the difference was not significant ( p = 0.295).

When anti-VEGF injections were continued after RPE tear, no improvement in visual acuity was observed, although better anatomical outcomes did result. Patients with foveal involvement had worse visual acuity than patients without foveal involvement, but the difference was not significant.