As recently reported in MedPage Today, a study published in the April 2009 issue of The Archives of Ophthalmology, researchers have found that intravitreous injections of pegaptanib (Macugen) may help prevent further vision loss from central retinal vein occlusion, but does little to reverse it.

Specifically, patients injected with the drug to treat macular edema from central retinal vein occlusion were no more likely to gain at least 15 letters on a visual acuity test than those who got sham injections (P=0.48 for the 0.3-mg dose and P=0.35 for the 1-mg dose).

On the other hand, substantially fewer pegaptanib-treated patients lost 15 or more letters in visual acuity compared with controls (9% at 0.3 mg and 6% at 1 mg versus 31% with sham, P=0.03 and P=0.01, respectively).

The drug was also associated with nonsignificant trends for less central retinal thickness and neovascularization.

Read ^[1] the full story on MedPage Today.