IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN ON OPHTHALMIC CARE IN DIFFERENT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. THE NAMD EUROCOVCAT STUDY.

This study has been conducted in the Ophthalmology Departments of six centres distributed among different parts of Europe: Russia, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

This retrospective, international, multicentric, observational study was conducted on 546 patients, of which 55.13% were females, almost 100% of the patients were White/Caucasian race, and 71.53% of the patients presented a type 1 macular neovascularization (NVM). Baseline demographics (age, gender, type of NVM) were collected. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) measurements using Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) charts were performed at each visit. The number of visits, the number of injections and the change in mean visual acuity in 4 periods were also collected at 4 time points: 6 and 3 months before the lockdown, during the lockdown, and 6 months after it. The absenteeism of patients at the originally planned visits or IVI during the study period and the associated- demographics were also measured.

A total of 62.82% of patients (343 patients) that were on scheduled clinic visits and/or intravitreal injection treatment during the 3 months before the quarantine did not attend either to visit or for treatment during the lockdown. Also, the mean number of injections during the lockdown was significantly reduced. This was followed by a significant reduction in the mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) between the 3 months before the lockdown (mean BCVA of 60.68 ± 19.77 letters) and 6 months after lockdown (mean BCVA of 56.98 ± 22.59 letters). Patients with better BCVA before the lockdown and the ones showing neovascular activity were more likely to attend their scheduled visits and/or IVI treatments.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown have led to a decrease in the number of IVI treatments in patients with nAMD, evidencing a significant vision loss at 6 months.