What sort of treatments are for age-related macular degeneration?

There are 2 kinds: Wet and dry. You need to see a retina specialist, ask your eye doctor for a referral. The dry type is less treatable, the wet one has options. The most optimistic seems to be intraocular injections of drugs like bevasizumab, avastin (bevacizumab).

Several: Age-related macular degeneration is a chronic disease of the central part of the retina. It is broken down into two types, the "dry" form, which involves slow, patchy deterioration of retinal cells, and the "wet" form which is caused by bleeding and leads to rapid vision loss. Current treatment for "wet" is intravitreal injections with eylea, lucentis, (ranibizumab) or avastin. For the "dry", areds vitamins.

Different kinds: There are different forms of macular degeneration, dry and wet. No treatment for the dry form is available, we only have preventative measures including lifestyle changes and dietary supplements. The wet form can be treated usually with injected medications or laser treatments.

Dry and Wet: Dry armd is treated with areds oral supplementation in pill form as well as protection from uv light . Eating a diet of leafy green vegetables is important. Wet armd involves leaking, or bleeding retinal blood vessels . Treatment is with anti vegf injection in the eye and occasionaly laser treatment.

Some: The big question is what is the trigger for this condition? Treatment includes laser, steroids and pharmaceuticals termed vegf inhibitors which prevent abnormal blood vessel formation. There is a vitamin combination (areds + lutein) which can help. No cure is currently known but this is a subject of significant interest and investigation. Stay tuned.

Dry or wet?: Macular degeneration comes in two flavors: dry and wet. Typically, dry amd is treated with eye vitamins and nutrients. Wet amd may require frequent injections of medication inside the eye or even laser treatment depending on the location of leakage in the macula. Most importantly, though, one with macular degeneration should be evaluated and managed by a retina specialist.