Available Treatments

Your eye doctor can tell you about treatments to help slow your vision loss and keep your eyesight longer. Macular degeneration treatments include:

• Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatment

  • Dry macular degeneration: There are no treatments, but dietary supplementation (antioxidants and zinc) may help. Ask your doctor what supplementation might be helpful. Your doctor will continuously monitor to see if your condition is deteriorating to the more severe wet form
    
    

• Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatments

  • Wet macular degeneration (neovascular AMD): Treatments are available to slow vision loss due to wet AMD
    
    
    • MACUGEN^® (pegaptanib sodium injection) is available for the treatment of wet macular degeneration. It is the only drug therapy approved by the FDA for all types of wet AMD patients. MACUGEN blocks an essential signal that causes abnormal blood vessels to grow and leak
    
    
  • Other treatment approaches for wet macular degeneration include destroying leaking blood vessels after they’ve formed and may not be appropriate for all people with wet AMD
    • Photocoagulation uses high-energy laser beams to burn and seal off areas with abnormal blood vessels. This macular degeneration treatment is appropriate for up to about 20% of people with wet AMD, depending on the location and type of wet macular degeneration they have
      
      
    • Photodynamic therapy uses a drug injected into the hand or arm vein that is activated by a different type of laser light and seals off abnormal blood vessels. Only one particular type of wet macular degeneration, accounting for about 25% of patients, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this macular degeneration treatment
      
      

Work closely with your doctor to treat macular degeneration and help preserve your vision. Treatments are usually given more than once to help manage your condition. So it’s essential that you make a commitment to your appointments.

Your eye doctor will tell you which macular degeneration treatment is best for you, depending on your disease progression and your overall health.