{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T16:30:50Z","timestamp":1769099450184,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Georg Thieme Verlag KG","issue":"01","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Klin Monbl Augenheilkd"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1]]},"abstract":"Abstract<\/jats:title>\n Purpose To determine the most common reasons for treatment discontinuation in patients with retinal diseases undergoing intravitreal injections (IVI\u200as).<\/jats:p>\n Methods A retrospective study was conducted with all patients who underwent IVI therapy in our Department of Ophthalmology between January 2016 and January 2024. We investigated the reasons for therapy discontinuation, including non-persistence (declining therapy). Patients who declined therapy (non-persistence) were compared with the remaining patients to determine the potential factors responsible for their decision.<\/jats:p>\n Results The mean age of the 2218 patients (1155 women, 1063 men) who took part in the study was 77.6\u2009\u00b1\u200912.0 years. A total of 1029 patients (46.4%) achieved a dry macula in both eyes at the time of the study. Treatment was discontinued in 865 patients (39%) due to poor prognosis (visual acuity <\u20091.3\u2009logMAR) (188, 8.4%), change to another medical centre (175, 7.9%), comorbid systemic diseases (128, 5.7%), loss of contact (128, 5.7%), financial problems with health insurance (13, 0.5%) or death (59, 2.6%), while 174 patients (7.8%) declined IVI therapy (non-persistence). Compared to the other patients, non-persistence patients were significantly older (76.2\u2009\u00b1\u200912 vs. 81.2\u2009\u00b1\u200911, p\u2009<\u20090.001), had significantly worse visual acuity (logMAR) at the last visit (0.50\u2009\u00b1\u20090.5 vs. 0.29\u2009\u00b1\u20090.2, p\u2009=\u20090.001), received a significantly higher number of IVI\u200as (10\u2009\u00b1\u200911 vs. 14\u2009\u00b1\u200915, p\u2009<\u20090.001) and had a significantly higher proportion following the pro re nata treatment protocol (59%\n vs. 72%, p\u2009=\u20090.001).<\/jats:p>\n Conclusion The most common reason for treatment discontinuation was the poor prognosis, which related to the nature of macular diseases. Advanced age, higher number of injections, pro re nata protocol and reduced visual acuity during therapy were identified as factors that affected patient non-persistence to treatment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1055\/a-2679-9763","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]],"date-time":"2025-09-01T23:04:24Z","timestamp":1756767864000},"page":"23-29","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Causes of Treatment Discontinuation in Retinal Diseases Treated with Intravitreal Injections"],"prefix":"10.1055","volume":"243","author":[{"given":"Alaa Din","family":"Abdin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nicolas","family":"Barakat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wissam","family":"Aljundi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8642-0222","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yaser","family":"Abu Dail","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Cristian","family":"Munteanu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Isabel","family":"Weinstein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9701-8204","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Berthold","family":"Seitz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Saarland University Medical Center UKS, Homburg\/Saar, Germany."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"194","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref2","first-page":"50","article-title":"[Advantages of a designated IVI center for a German university eye hospital]","volume":"117","author":"A D Abdin","year":"2020","journal-title":"Ophthalmologe"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"92","DOI":"10.1186\/s13643-023-02261-x","article-title":"Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"12","author":"H 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macular degeneration (5-year follow-up)","volume":"262","author":"A D Abdin","year":"2024","journal-title":"Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol"},{"key":"ref17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"860784","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2022.860784","article-title":"First year real life experience with intravitreal brolucizumab for treatment of refractory neovascular age-related macular degeneration","volume":"13","author":"A D Abdin","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front Pharmacol"},{"key":"ref18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1671","DOI":"10.1007\/s00417-019-04360-9","article-title":"Intravitreal ranibizumab versus aflibercept following treat and extend protocol for neovascular age-related macular degeneration","volume":"257","author":"A D Abdin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol"},{"key":"ref19","first-page":"87","article-title":"A retrospective study of the real-life Utilization and effectiveness of Ranibizumab therapy for neovascular Age-related 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Ophthalmol"},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"205","DOI":"10.4274\/tjo.28003","article-title":"Factors affecting compliance to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy in patients with age-related macular degeneration","volume":"47","author":"O Polat","year":"2017","journal-title":"Turk J Ophthalmol"},{"key":"ref27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"872","DOI":"10.1097\/OPX.0000000000000283","article-title":"Trends in age-related macular degeneration management in Singapore","volume":"91","author":"W Y Ng","year":"2014","journal-title":"Optom Vis Sci"},{"key":"ref28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2119","DOI":"10.1007\/s00417-019-04414-y","article-title":"Treatment compliance and adherence among patients with diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration treated by anti-vascular endothelial growth factor under universal health coverage","volume":"257","author":"R Angermann","year":"2019","journal-title":"Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol"}],"container-title":["Klinische Monatsbl\u00e4tter f\u00fcr Augenheilkunde"],"original-title":[],"language":"de","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.thieme-connect.de\/products\/ejournals\/pdf\/10.1055\/a-2679-9763.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T23:47:56Z","timestamp":1769039276000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.thieme-connect.de\/DOI\/DOI?10.1055\/a-2679-9763"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"01","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1055\/a-2679-9763","archive":["Portico","CLOCKSS"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0023-2165","1439-3999"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0023-2165","type":"print"},{"value":"1439-3999","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]}}}