Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2023; 11(30): 7337-7349
Published online Oct 26, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i30.7337
Efficacy and safety of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents on corneal neovascularization: A meta-analysis
Shih-Chung Lai, El-Wui Loh, Du-I Chiou, Chien-Tai Hong
Shih-Chung Lai, Du-I Chiou, Department of Ophthalmology, Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City 23561, Taiwan
El-Wui Loh, Center for Evidence-Based Health Care, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City 23561, Taiwan
El-Wui Loh, Cochrane Taiwan, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan
El-Wui Loh, Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan
El-Wui Loh, Department of Medical Imaging, Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City 23561, Taiwan
Chien-Tai Hong, Department of Neurology, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei 23561, Taiwan
Co-corresponding authors: Du-I Chiou and Chien-Tai Hong.
Author contributions: Lai SC, Chiou DI, Loh EW, and Hong CT contributed to study conception and design; Lai SC, Chiou DI, and Loh EW contributed to data acquisition and analysis; Chiou DI and Loh EW contributed to data interpretation; Lai SC and Chiou DI contributed to manuscript writing and revision; Hong CT and Loh EW contributed to provision of resources and administrative oversight; Chiou DI and Hong CT contributed equally.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declared no competing interests
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chien-Tai Hong, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Shuang-Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City 23561, Taiwan. ct.hong@tmu.edu.tw
Received: July 27, 2023
Peer-review started: July 27, 2023
First decision: September 26, 2023
Revised: September 26, 2023
Accepted: October 8, 2023
Article in press: October 8, 2023
Published online: October 26, 2023
Processing time: 90 Days and 5.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor is one of the pharmacological options for treating corneal neovascularization (CoNV) - the second major cause of blindness. The present study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis support the use of Bevacizumab in the treatment of CoNV. The results of our study supports that anti-VEGF agents are effective in reducing CoNV, best-corrected visual acuity, and graft rejection/failure rate. In addition, our study found evidence supporting the improvement of visual acuity which was not significant in the previous systematic review and meta-analysis.