AIM: To study the clinical effect of Conbercept and Ranibizumab for macular edema(ME)with meta-analysis.

METHODS:We searched Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials(CENTRAL), Google scholar, ClinicalTrials.gov, CNKI, VIP and wanfang database for studies which published between January 1 2012 and July 1 2017, on the comparison of conbercept with ranibizumab for the clinical effect of secondary macular edema. The primary endpoints were visual acuity(VA)and central macular thickness in this study to assess the efficiency of the drugs. Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 12.0 were used for data analysis with the pooled odds ratios(OR), mean difference and 95% confidence interval(CI).

RESULTS: Eleven RCTs involving 812 patients met inclusion criteria and included in this meta-analysis, including 414 eyes in conbercept group and 398 eyes in ranibizumab group. Macular edema in this study were secondary to age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion. No significant differences in improvement of vision acuity(P=0.09)or reduction of CMT(P>0.05)were noted at the end of 3mo between two groups. Compared to ranibizumab, conbercept showed a better effectiveness in macular edema alleviation in the end of 6mo in the present study(OR=-58.50, 95%CI: -108.04 to -8.95; P=0.02).

CONCLUSION: Despite evidence from the meta-analysis of the RCTs suggesting a strong difference of the effectiveness for macular edema between conbercept and ranibizumab, more clinical trials are still needed to confirm our results because of the heterogeneity in the collected data.