You hear a lot about laser surgery to improve vision, but there's a new way lasers can restore sight. Age-related macular degeneration is a common cause of blindness in older people. It affects millions. There is a new treatment for this condition that restore sight.
Macular degeneration begins when abnormal deposits accumulate under the retina.
New blood vessels then grow under the retina, and bleed or leak. Now doctors have a new treatment using lasers that can restore some sight to patients with the the condition. Ophthalmologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say the procedure requires about three treatments to stop the leaking from blood vessels. First, doctors give patients a drug to circulate through the abnormal blood vessels in the eye. Then a red laser is applied precisely, selectively destroying the abnormal blood vessels.