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Verteporfin photodynamic therapy for neovascular age-related ...

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DOI: 10.3310/hta16060Health Technology Assessment 2012; Vol. 16: No. 6141WILL I SUFFER ANY SIDE EFFECTS?Visudyne will make your skin extremely light sensitive in thefirst 24 - 48 hours after injection. If you stay in bright light <strong>for</strong>too long, your can suffer a reaction which is like having a badsunburn. There<strong>for</strong>e you will be asked to take precautionswhich will include the wearing of dark glasses to protect youreyes, keeping the skin of your arms and legs covered andpreferably staying indoors <strong>for</strong> about 48 hours.In some people the eye sight in the treated eye may be evenmore blurred than it was be<strong>for</strong>e treatment and this may last afew days. If the drug leaks out of the blood vessel during theinjection, you are likely to experience some pain where theinjection is given. In this case, there may be a rash and theskin covering the leak will need to be covered <strong>for</strong> several daysto protect it from light.A small number of patients have had back pain and have feltsick during the injection. These feelings went away once theinjection was stopped. In a few people, severe worsening ofeyesight after visudyne treatment has been noticed. This isbecause some of the normal blood vessels in the retina arealso accidentally shut down during treatment. Veryoccasionally, bleeding may occur inside the eye, eyesight maybecome abnormal or eye pain and redness may beexperienced. Some of these symptoms may also be due to theAMD itself. Some patients have had one or more of thefollowing other side effects, namely headaches, dizziness or adrop in blood pressure.Approximately 1 in a 100 people develop severe sight lossimmediately following PDT which may never recover. Theexact reason why this happens is unclear but it may be due tohaemorrh<strong>age</strong> from dam<strong>age</strong>d blood vessels or dam<strong>age</strong> to thenormal blood vessels of the retina. However people with CNVwho have not had any treatment whatsoever can also developsudden severe sight loss owing to haemorrh<strong>age</strong> from the CNV.There<strong>for</strong>e it is very difficult to tell if the treatment itself had© Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2012. This work was produced by Reeves et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by theSecretary of State <strong>for</strong> Health.

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