Prior to the introduction of anti-VEGF drugs in 2006, the prognosis for patients with Exudative ARMD was not good. A small number of patients who were treated with thermal laser (prior to 2000) or PDT laser (after 2000) were lucky to have vision stabilized - better vision was not obtained.
Let's take an intermission prior to discussing Exudative ARMD. Obviously the most important concept of macular disease is vision loss. We all know that good vision was the norm in youth. We all know it becomes a challenge as we age. Here are the four reasons for vision loss: 1.
Before delving into the finer details, let's look at couple of simple things. Dry ARMD is not the same as dry eyes, i.e. the tearing of dry eyes is in the front of the eye and has nothing to do with 'leakage' in the back part of the eye.
If your doctor finds leakage, or exudation, under your retina and the diagnosis of Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is made, he/she may inject an imaging dye into your vein and take photos of the macula/retina. This test is critical to determine what type of Exudative ARMD you
When we look at an OCT, we look at a cross section of the retina as shown in the left photo. The right photo is the cross section of the macula at the level of the bright green line shown on the left. (1) denotes a relatively normal retina. (2)
The OCT is one of the most important tests that a retinal ophthalmologist performs in order to diagnose and treat macular degeneration. It is a non-invasive technique that shows a cross-sectional view of the retina. It uses light - it is not an xray. As you can see in this
Macular degeneration, also known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD), is a degenerative disease of the macula, a part of the retina that is responsible for reading vision. There are two types: dry (nonexudative ARMD) and wet (exudative ARMD). The term wet refers to leakage of fluid and blood from abnormal