According to a report by the Des Moines Register, effective treatment for macular degeneration has been evolving throughout the past decade. In December of 2011, says the article, a medication called EYLEA (the market name for aflibercept) was released in December. FDA tests on the medication showed that it will require less frequent treatments and doctors’ visits for those afflicted with macular degeneration.
In the aforementioned Des Moines Register report, a woman affected by macular degeneration is profiled. Diagnosed a decade ago, Carol Palmer’s case was detected early during an eye exam.
Palmer describes macular degeneration as “like looking through a clear drinking glass,” says the report. Her night vision worsened, and things like lettering on street signs began to blur and and fade together.
This is characteristic of age-related macular degeneration; central vision grows distorted over time. In Palmer’s case, she ended up receiving injections from a retina specialist in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Says Dr. Jared Nielsen, the specialist who started treatments for Palmer, “It’s a particularly cruel disease…you can’t drive, you can’t read.”
Treatments for macular degeneration were not terribly effective until recently, doing little more than inhibiting the loss of vision, and not halting it. Only in the past few years has progress for treatment become more attainable.
Macular degeneration impinges upon the macula, a part of the eye near the retina’s center and which is imperative to central vision. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among the elderly, says the report. In many cases, central vision degenerates to the point where one may not recognize faces, and only peripheral vision remains somewhat healthy.
Palmer’s distorted central vision was caused by “dry” macular degeneration. This means her retinas’ tissues were damaged. Later on, her case morphed into the “wet” incarnation of the affliction; her blood vessels were causing harm to her central vision.
According to Dr. Nielsen, treatments put into use in 2004 resulted in a 90% success rate of retarding the condition, also allowing him to improve patients’ vision 30% of the time. These medications were a type of eye injection.
“It certainly has worked well for me,” says Palmer in the report. Her treatments last around an hour and a half, and it consists of an eye exam, pupil dilation, optical tomography to get images of the retina, numbing of the eyes, and then injections of the medication. Patients receiving such treatments must show up to their doctor monthly, and have a reliable ride home afterward.
Dr. Nielsen uses the drug Lucentis as an eye injection, as it prevents the growth of further blood vessels, and hinders those already existing.
According to Nielsen, adults over the age of 55 should make regular visits to an optometrist.