| As a person ages, he/she is vulnerable to | | | | such condition. This condition needs medical |
| age-related illnesses such as wearing out of his | | | | attention because it affects the eye by its very |
| her vision. The macula which is located at the rear | | | | rapid progress which can cause permanent vision |
| part of the eyes is affected by the gradual break | | | | loss. The good news about this is that there are |
| down of it. There is what we wet macular | | | | available surgical interventions for wet AMD which |
| degeneration, and dry macular degeneration. If it is | | | | can be done in the office or eye clinic of the |
| not really apparent to your own knowledge, the | | | | physician and that the person may go home the |
| distinction between the two is the mere presence | | | | same day as he or she will need to return the |
| of their exudate (in wet macular degeneration | | | | next day for follow-up exams. |
| there is a growth of abnormal blood vessels while | | | | The following are the choices of surgery that |
| in dry macular degeneration, patients usually begin | | | | may be performed with patient affected with |
| with the formation of tiny yellow deposits called | | | | wet AMD: |
| drusen). | | | | 1. Laser Photocoagulation - it works through |
| The prevalence of dry is 90 percent over AMD | | | | cauterizing the leaky blood vessels under the |
| patients. Most of the time, distortion of vision is | | | | macula and by sealing off those vessels the |
| caused by dry AMD but vision loss is sometimes | | | | chance is less for leakage to further develop. |
| led by the thinning and breaking down of the | | | | 2. Photodynamic Therapy - heat is not used in this |
| macula that is why surgery is most likely not | | | | procedure and that only light from a cool laser |
| advisable as a means of treatment for this | | | | closes off the leaky blood vessels which will not |
| condition, as wet AMD has high chance of | | | | leave the person with black hole from small burn |
| developing from laser surgery which removes the | | | | on the macula from the hot laser. |
| drusen to slow down vision loss in people affected | | | | 3. Macular Translocation Surgery - this is not really |
| with dry AMD. Sad to say, there is still no available | | | | widely applied by most surgeons, such special |
| medical or surgical treatment for dry form of | | | | cases like if the leaky blood vessels are located |
| AMD, but there are interventions that may help | | | | directly under the fovea, thus this surgery is |
| the eyesight with low-vision aids such as special | | | | most likely advised for the patient. |
| lenses and electronic systems to produce | | | | 4. Transpupillary Thermotherapy - it uses heat |
| enlarged images of nearby objects. | | | | from a lower powered laser to coagulate the |
| However, the prevalence of wet form of AMD is | | | | leaky blood vessels. |
| only 10 percent mostly in person affected by | | | | |