In the wet form of senile macular degeneration, in addition to the deterioration of the macular tissue, bleeding and accumulation of fluid from the newly formed blood vessels below the macula also occur. If left untreated, scarring occurs over several weeks or months, resulting in permanent and irreparable damage to the yellow spot photoreceptor and rapid loss of visual acuity.
What are the symptoms of wet macular degeneration?
The most common symptoms of wet macular degeneration are central vision impairment, difficulty reading, centrally located shadow or loss of part of the image in the center, distorted lines (eg when solving a crossword puzzle in a newspaper), difficulty distinguishing colors and slow recovery of vision from light to dark. room.
How is wet macular degeneration diagnosed?
Experienced ophthalmologists can determine bleeding and swelling of the macula by dilating the pupils and examining the macula. Confirmation of the diagnosis is obtained during the same examination by recording on an OCT device. Sometimes additional confirmation is obtained by performing fluorescein angiography, the so-called FAG.
How is wet macular degeneration treated?
Although wet degeneration, unlike dry degeneration, causes rapid vision loss, today there are very effective drugs called anti-VEGF (anti-vascular endothelial growth factor) that reduce bleeding and leakage or accumulation of fluid under the macula and improve vision. The drugs must be administered in the form of injections into the eye. Injections are given into the eye under local anesthesia. After application in the operating room, the patient can go home immediately. The treatment lasts from several months to several years and requires repeated injections at intervals of one month.
Why is early detection of this disease and prevention important?
For elderly patients, a preventive ophthalmological examination is very important, in which the condition of the macula can be determined by simply dilating the pupils. The initial changes in wet degeneration can be successfully treated with these injections, but they may not be immediately obvious to the patient, in terms of subjective problems, and therefore special emphasis is placed on preventive and screening examinations that include OCT diagnostics!
Why Ophthalmology Polyclinic Dr. Balog?
In the Ophthalmological Polyclinic Dr. Balog we have many years and rich experience in treating this type of disease. We started the injection treatment in 2012.
We apply all available drugs in the world. Injection treatment is performed on an outpatient basis and the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes. We plan the treatment individually because our latest generation OCT device enables the detection of even the most subtle changes.
