Macular degeneration is often related to aging and is thus often referred to as age-related macular degeneration. It is often abbreviated as AMD or ARMD. Most patients with AMD begin to notice problems sometime after age 50. AMD is the most common cause of legal blindness among people over age 60 in the Western world. The disease occurs in “dry” or “wet” forms. The cause of AMD is still unknown; however, researchers are exploring several theories as to how the disease develops. Most patients have dry type macular degeneration and about 10% progress to wet type.

AMD is a challenging disease for both patient and doctor because there are very few treatment options. For dry type macular degeneration patients are given special vitamin pills.  For wet type disease current treatment method is anti-VGEF (Eylea and Lucentis) injections.

Some patients benefit from telescopic intraocular implants.