Macular Degeneration

Before understanding how macular degeneration affects a person, it is necessary to take a look at what it is, and how it relates to the eye in general. Firstly, macular degeneration affects the central part of a person’s vision. That is, an area of the central vision becomes degraded to a point where the image will become extremely blurred or distorted.

The reason for this is that part of the macula, the central area of the retina, starts to malfunction or fail. The macula is made up of a series of cones which sense the light that comes in through the lens of the eye, with the most concentrated number of cones being in the centre of the macula, called the fovea.

If this area becomes affected, vision will be severely impaired? Despite it being a very small part of the retina, it is responsible for our ability to see fine detail and colour. Hence, when it begins to fail, it should be noticed almost immediately, but this is sadly not the case.

The most common form is age related macular degeneration, in which the symptoms become apparent in individuals over the age of 55. It may well be that the disease has been present well before this time, however, the brain is very good at compensating for many defects that are present in the human vision system, so it might go unnoticed until fairly advanced.

This is compounded by the fact that macular degeneration might only affect one eye, making it hard for the sufferer to diagnose by themselves. Diagnosis has to be performed by a professional, and there are a series of tests using pictorial diagrams which are specifically designed to test for the onset of macular degeneration.

There are two kinds of macular degeneration, known as wet and dry. The vast majority are the dry form, caused very simply by some form of fatty deposit building up on the macular. This is distinct from the wet form in which blood vessels behind the retina leak fluid onto the cones, destroying them, which affects around 15% of sufferers.

There are treatments for macular degeneration, both age related macular degeneration, and the juvenile form, which tends to affect teenagers, and be hereditary. These are complex treatments, involving controlling the root cause if the condition has been diagnosed early enough.

If not, laser therapy can be used to treat many of the contributing conditions directly, but is not always effective. In cases where it is effective, the results will benefit the suffer for around one year.

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