No goods, fees, or services were exchanged for this or any other posting, or for Dr. de Juan's appearance in this report. Pursuits like reading and driving become impossible once the condition worsens. Once-recognizable faces gradually slide into a haze, then into darkness. Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, ranks as the leading cause of blindness of people age 65 and over. Dr. de Juan reports that AMD comes on gradually when the center of vision begins to resemble looking through a hazy window pane.
Straight lines go wavy.
Then it begins as the rods and cones die, the photoreceptors in the retina die. You just get a scotoma, or a blind spot, right in the center. Without quick intervention, the vast majority of patients go legally blind, he says. Saline solution is injected into the back of the eye, causing the retina to blister so it can move without being detached. Doctors reposition the eye only around 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters, or 0.1 inches, which shortens the eyeball.