Results from a recent international clinical trial show that the technique can delay progression of the most destructive form of the disease, known as wet macular degeneration. AMD is an incurable but painless condition that disrupts the eyesight of some 1.7 million Americans, most of whom are over age 65. The number of cases is expected to soar in the next few decades as the Baby Boomers enter their 60s. Early symptoms like blurring and distortion may worsen until blind spots appear. A person with AMD may find it impossible to recognize a familiar face or drive a car, but the disease does not cause total blindness.
Peripheral vision remains.
The disease ruins a vital portion of the eye known as the macula. To read this page, watch TV, hit a tennis ball, or do anything else that requires keen forward vision, you depend on the macula, a tiny depression on the back wall of the eye directly opposite the pupil. Packed with light-sensitive cells, the macula provides the resolving power necessary to distinguish fine details and see crisp images. In patients with wet AMD, weak-walled blood vessels begin to proliferate in the layers of the eye beneath the macula. Blood and fluid weep from these leaky vessels and warp the macula.