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This review investigates age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is a degenerative retinal disease. The pathogenesis of the disease is unknown, but tobacco smoking is a significant risk factor for the development of the disease. The wet form of AMD can be treated by intraocular injection of an antibody that binds vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) which is involved in the disease process. The introduction of anti-VEGF treatment is a major reason why blindness secondary to wet AMD is now negligible. The demographic development can be expected to increase the demand for treatment of AMD considerably in the future., (Published under Open Access CC-BY-NC-BD 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

This evaluation of a Cochrane-review including five clinical trials of good methodological quality indicates that the antiangiogenic therapeutic agents, pegaptanib and ranibizumab, are effective treatment strategies for neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). The review does not include a direct comparison or an indirect statistical comparison between the two antiangiogenic agents. In clinical practice ranibizumab compared to pegaptanib is the drug of choice because of cost-utility analysis and the number of patients gaining visual acuity.