Macular Degeneration
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of permanent vision loss in the United States. AMD causes damage and breakdown in the macula, or the central region of the retina. This is the most important region of the retina because it is responsible for the central vision that is crucial for things such as reading and recognizing faces. Patients with macular degeneration are at risk for losing some or all of their central vision.
Macular Degeneration is an age related problem and becomes more problematic as patients age. Genetics also plays a key role, and a family history of this disease does significantly increase risk of developing macular degeneration
Symptoms
Macular degeneration typically causes blurring or distortion of the central vision in one or both eyes. This may be noticed when straight lines start to look distorted, words in text look blurred or blacked out, or there is more difficulty recognizing peoples faces. However, during early stages of macular degeneration, there may be little to no symptoms noted by the patient.
Diagnosis
Macular degeneration is typically diagnosed by an ophthalmologist and requires a dilated exam in order to examine the retina. Additionally, special types of photos and scans of the retina are used to examine for fluid, blood and deposits in the retina that occur with macular degeneration
Treatment
Supplements
Dry Macular Degeneration is treated with the use of a nutritional supplement formulation, called AREDS-2. This high-dose combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene and zinc, lutein ad zeaxanthin has been shown to reduce the risk of conversion to wet macular degeneration by about 25%. The benefits of this combination of supplements was verified in a large multi-center study called the Age-Related Eye Diseae Study (AREDS), for which the formulation is named.
Injections
Wet Macular Degeneration is most commonly treated with delivery of a medication (anti-VEGF) directly into the eye, through intraocular injections. This has become the gold standard therapy in recent years and has allowed a majority of patients to retain a good portion of their vision following diagnosis, and has even resulted in significantly improved vision for a large portion of patients. Injections are given once a month at the beginning but the treatments can often be extended to longer periods or even stopped once the disease becomes controlled.