Age-Related Macular Degeneration

AMD affects the macula—the tiny central part of your retina responsible for sharp, "straight-ahead" vision used for reading, driving, and recognizing faces. The rest of your side vision usually remains intact. In "Dry" AMD (the more common type), the macular tissue thins and breaks down. In "Wet" AMD, abnormal, leaky blood vessels grow under the macula and can cause rapid damage.

Disease

Symptoms

Symptoms usually develop gradually in dry AMD (or suddenly in Wet AMD): Blurriness or a dark spot in the center of your vision. Straight lines (like door frames or lines on a grid) appearing wavy or bent. Difficulty reading or seeing fine details. Colors appearing less bright. Main Risk Factors: Age (over 60), smoking (the biggest controllable risk), family history, and being of Caucasian descent.

Diagnosis

Your doctor will check your central vision with an Amsler grid (a chart of straight lines). A dilated eye exam and an OCT scan are essential to see the layers of your macula in detail and detect any fluid or bleeding. For Wet AMD, fluorescein angiography or OCT angiography might be used to map the abnormal vessels.

Treatments

For Dry AMD: While there is no cure, a specific blend of vitamins and minerals (the AREDS2 formula) can help slow progression in some people. Lifestyle changes like quitting smoking, eating leafy green vegetables and fish, and protecting your eyes from UV light are crucial. For Wet AMD: The primary treatment is anti-VEGF injections into the eye. These injections can often stop the leaking, reverse swelling, and help preserve vision. They need to be repeated regularly.

More to read

Disease

Cataract

A cataract is a clouding of the eye's natural, clear lens. Think of it as a clear window that slowly becomes frosted. This clouding scatters light, preventing a sharp image from reaching the retina. It is most commonly related to aging. However, some forms of congenital cataract are seen in children.

Disease

Refractive Error

Refractive error means that your eye does not focus light ideally onto the retina, resulting in a blurred image on the retina. This condition is not a disease, but a common problem with light focusing. Its main types include myopia (nearsightedness: nearby objects are clear while distant objects appear blurry), hyperopia (farsightedness: distance vision may be clearer than near vision), and astigmatism (vision is blurry at all distances due to an irregularly shaped cornea).

Disease

Night Blindness

Night blindness is a symptom, not a disease. It means your eyes have trouble adapting to low light. This is often due to a problem with the rod cells in your retina, which are responsible for night and peripheral vision.

Disease

Color Blindness

Most color blindness is not complete blindness to color, but a difficulty telling certain colors apart. It is usually an inherited condition (more common in males) present from birth. It happens when certain light-sensitive cone cells in your retina don't work properly. The most common type is trouble distinguishing reds from greens.

Disease

Retinopathy of Prematurity

ROP is a disease that affects premature infants. In the womb, the retinal blood vessels grow late in pregnancy. When a baby is born very early, this normal growth is interrupted. After birth, abnormal, fragile blood vessels may begin to grow in the retina. These vessels can leak and scar, potentially pulling the retina off (detachment).

Disease

Retinal Detachment

A retinal detachment is a medical emergency. It occurs when the retina peels away from the back wall of the eye, like wallpaper bubbling off a wall. When detached, the retina cannot function, leading to vision loss.