US researchers found no significant long-term differences in retinal vascular metrics between patients receiving intravitreal injections (IVI) of anti-VEGF and non-injection control groups.

Dr Ying Zhu, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, presented the group’s findings at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2025 annual meeting. The study included 107 patients (164 eyes) with wet age-related macular degeneration, 57 eyes of which comprised the IVI group (mean number of injections, 12.56) and 107 eyes the non-injection group. The study was conducted over six years, with the average patient follow-up time being 34 months.

Researchers used swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography to identify any changes in vessel density and vessel skeleton density in the superficial, deep and retinal slab; the size of the foveal avascular zone, circularity and perimetry of the retina slab were calculated.

They concluded that repeated anti-VEGF IVI was not associated with any relevant significant change in vascular metrics.