Patients suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration require regular injections of medication into their eye to avoid vision loss and must adhere to an intricate treatment schedule in order to keep vision intact. Maintaining such an regimen may prove challenging.

Priyatham Mettu, a retina specialist with BrightFocus Chats, addressed questions regarding eye injections for wet macular degeneration in recent BrightFocus Chat. Here are the highlights from that discussion.

What is Wet Macular Degeneration?

Macular degeneration, an eye condition affecting the retina, causes vision loss. This progressive condition damages the macula which provides central vision. Macular degeneration may make daily tasks like reading and driving difficult as well as creating blind spots in your field of view; however, treatments exist which can slow the progression of the disease and improve your sight.

Wet macular degeneration develops when blood vessels underneath the retina begin to leak blood or fluid, damaging retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and leading to vision loss. This form is more serious than dry forms, potentially leading to severe vision loss in just months – therefore, if any changes in your vision arise it is vital to see your doctor immediately.

When wet macular degeneration develops, physicians can usually treat the condition with anti-VEGF medications to inhibit abnormal blood vessel growth. Furthermore, laser therapy can be used to break apart broken vessels; additionally dietary and lifestyle modifications may also help slow progression.

Treating wet AMD with this medication may help prevent further vision loss; however, it will not restore it. Therefore, regular eye examinations are critical in spotting AMD early. Furthermore, be sure to follow any specific recommendations for treating wet AMD.

People living with wet macular degeneration may require additional treatments, including laser therapy, photodynamic therapy or combinations thereof to stop further vision loss and seal off leaky blood vessels. These therapies may also help seal off leaking arteries that contribute to further vision loss.

Current treatment options like Lucentis, Eylea and Avastin help protect and enhance vision for many patients; however, their administration requires frequent eye injections which can be time consuming both for the individual and caregivers. A new FDA-approved drug named Beovu may help ease these burdens as it has the potential to decrease treatment frequency from every 4-8 weeks down to once or twice monthly injections; which would be welcome relief for those living with wet macular degeneration.

How Do We Treat Wet Macular Degeneration?

Wet macular degeneration (Wet AMD) occurs when abnormal blood vessels form beneath the retina and leak blood or fluid into the macula, leading to rapid vision loss. If wet AMD goes untreated it can progress quickly into severe and permanent vision loss.

Wet AMD can strike quickly and often recur in both eyes, affecting around 10% of people with dry macular degeneration. The disease typically starts off as dry macular degeneration before progressing to wet form – sometimes known as exudative macular degeneration.

Treatment for wet macular degeneration generally includes injections of anti-VEGF medications into the eye using an ultrafine needle. These drugs inhibit abnormal blood vessel growth that contribute to wet macular degeneration.

Lucentis and Eylea are two medications commonly prescribed to treat wet macular degeneration. Both work similarly; however, certain patients may achieve better visual results with one drug over the other; therefore VRMNY may switch between the two in order to provide you with optimal care.

For patients not responding to medications, photodynamic therapy offers another solution for stopping wet macular degeneration’s progression. The procedure can be performed as an outpatient service with the patient lying down under an ophthalmologist’s care; using special slit lamps to magnify retinal structures before using thermal laser clotting techniques on areas of choroidal neovascularization using thermal laser technology – usually three or four treatments within the first year and two each year thereafter.

If you suspect wet macular degeneration, it’s crucial that we see you immediately so we can detect and address it before its progression worsens further. Our tests will give us an in-depth assessment of your condition, such as an Amsler grid test that requires you to view an 11×11 centimeter grid while looking straight ahead. The Amsler grid can help identify any visual distortions, such as wavy lines or blind spots, that you might be experiencing. Fluorescein angiography can also be performed, in which dye is injected into your arm and photos taken of your retina as the dye travels through its blood vessels. This test will show any areas of neovascularization and help us begin wet macular degeneration treatment sooner.

What are the Side Effects of Wet Macular Degeneration Injections?

There are two forms of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), dry and wet. With dry AMD, the retina (the thin layer at the back of your eye) becomes thinner over time until it can no longer work correctly causing vision to gradually decline. Wet macular degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels form and leak fluid into your macula damaging cells and leading to vision loss – usually occurring suddenly and severely than dry AMD. Wet AMD must be treated quickly using anti-VEGF injections directly into your eye to stop new blood vessel growth that leak fluid into retinal cells which ultimately leads to vision loss. We use anti-VEGF injections directly into your eye which help stops the growth of new blood vessels leaking fluid into macula cells as treatment option, treating immediate visual loss caused by blood vessel growth leaking fluid into macula cells leading to vision loss causing vision loss as soon as it happens and thus degeneration occurs abruptly. We treat wet AMD similarly by injecting medication directly into eye, called anti-VEGF injection which helps stop its development by helping blockading from retinal blood vessel leakage into macula cells directly and treating it by injecting anti-VEGF injection which prevents growth while treating sudden macular degeneration by injecting anti-VEGF injection directly into eye preventing new blood vessel growth by stopping leakage of fluid into retina resulting in vision loss causing vision loss and retina damage caused by leakage into macula cells damaged cells that caused vision loss may require hospitalisation with anti VEGF injection to prevent growth through injecting anti-VEGF injection directly preventing growth into retina leaking fluid to prevent leakage into macula which leakage caused by treating abnormal blood vessel leakage directly prevent growth thus stopping blood vessels that leads directly with anti VEGF injection directly preventing fluid into retina by injection into eye that directly inhibiting its leakage into macula direct way into macula directly causing macula caused damage from damaging cells damaged cells damaging cells thus leading to vision loss loss resulting in damage cells leading to vision loss due to retina leakage thus protecting its protection. We treat wet degeneration by injection using anti VEGF injection into macula cells hence leading vision loss through macula damaged cells damaged due to leakage into macula hence treating retina. We treat we can being exposed by leakage directly. We treatment. We treat we treat wet degeneration that leakage leakage while treating through macula leaking fluid leaking. By treating us through anti leaking through leakage directly. We treat we canister that leakage of fluid leakage through injection through this way stopping blood vessels thereby helping them which directly treating retina. We treatment as soon leaking blood vessels through anti VEGF injection so much faster treatment! we will prevent growth by injection. o! anti VEGF injection to thereby helping stopperception in one’s.

An injection is a quick and painless procedure performed in your doctor’s office. An anesthetic drops will first numb your eye. Next, they make a small hole in your eyelid to insert medicine – all within just seconds and painlessly.

Most individuals suffering from wet macular degeneration must receive regular eye injections for several years, usually Lucentis or Avastin which have both been FDA approved, to manage their condition. They require injection every 4-8 weeks. Unfortunately, this can become burdensome on patients as well as their families as frequent trips are required to their doctor’s office for injections.

University of Illinois Chicago researchers may have discovered an easier and less painful solution for wet macular degeneration: their compound could reduce fluid in the eye by inhibiting a protein necessary for creating new blood vessels. When tested on mice, this compound not only reduced fluid accumulation but also helped increase healing capacity – meaning progression of disease was halted altogether.

Although we have treatment available to us for wet macular degeneration, no cure exists for dry AMD. Because this form of AMD progresses slowly without leading to vision loss, most individuals do not require medical intervention for dry AMD. As researchers learn more about its causes we may discover ways of preventing or postponing its occurrence.

What are the Benefits of Wet Macular Degeneration Injections?

Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness among older adults, affecting the macula – an area in the center of the retina responsible for central vision. There are two forms of macular degeneration – dry and wet. Dry macular degeneration occurs when retinal fibers break down gradually, leading to gradual vision loss; wet macular degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels form that leak blood or fluid into the macula and cause more rapid vision loss; in its advanced state this type causes more rapid and severe loss of vision loss over time.

Eye injections are the primary treatment for wet macular degeneration and may help improve or stabilize vision. A thin needle delivers medication directly into the eye for administration – although you may feel some pressure while this procedure takes place, it should not be painful.

These injections target an area in the back of your eye called the retina, a thin layer of nerve cells that send signals from your brain to create and focus images on its surface. Without treatment, macular degeneration can lead to blurred or distorted vision and difficulty seeing straight lines, driving, or reading. Wet macular degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels form under the retina and leak blood or fluid into it causing sudden change and blindness if unchecked; injections prevent this process and prevent further vision loss.

At present, three drugs have been approved to treat wet AMD: Lucentis, Eylea and Avastin. Each should be injected every 4-8 weeks into the eye for injection; however a new medication called Beovu (brolucizumab) was recently approved as well which may require administration less frequently while potentially working better than existing medications.

Note that eye injections only act to temporarily ease wet macular degeneration and don’t cure it completely; eventually the condition will return, potentially resulting in permanent vision loss if left untreated. Therefore, regular visits to an eye doctor are absolutely essential!

At a BrightFocus Live Chat hosted by Duke University retina specialist Priyatham Mettu, MD, a macular degeneration expert discussed these and other eye care topics. For more information regarding macular degeneration visit our AMD Education Center.