Do you need private treatment for Age Related Macular Degeneration (also known as AMD)?

Do you have problems with your eyesight? Do you find you have ‘tunnel vision’? Do you have difficulty seeing straight in front of you – perhaps you find yourself looking slightly to one side when what you really want to look at is right in front of you?

When you look at what you know is a straight line – say, the edge of a building – do you find that it looks wobbly, distorted or blurred? Maybe you have a blurred or even blank spot in the middle of your vision. If you’ve answered yes to any of the above questions, then you might have Age Related Macular Degeneration.

Age Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, is the commonest cause of blindness and loss of central vision in the over-65s. It is a chronic disease – in other words it occurs over a long period of time – and can have a devastating impact on your quality of life, affecting your ability to drive, read, engage in many hobbies and carry out many of the normal activities of day-to-day life.

This page will help you understand the latest proven developments in AMD treatment

You’ll learn:

• Why you should consider private AMD treatment.
• Why you might want to discuss your need for AMD treatment with me.
• Background information about AMD, including:
  • AMD symptoms.
  • AMD causes.
  • AMD types – including Dry AMD and Wet AMD.
  • AMD treatment.
  • Expectations you can have during and after AMD treatment.
  • My answers to common questions about AMD and its treatment.

Throughout, I’ll give you an opportunity to contact me to discuss your concerns about AMD and AMD treatment with me in person.

Why should you contact me to treat your AMD in London?

• I am a highly experienced Moorfields Eye Hospital Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon and I will personally carry out your AMD treatment.
• I will incorporate the latest advanced proven techniques and medications in your AMD treatment.
• Your AMD treatment will be pain-free and safe.
• Where I can, I will restore your vision or halt the progression of AMD, with minimal risk.

Most people – particularly in the early stages – do not even notice any change in their vision until the damage is already happening. And yes, it can go from bad to worse very quickly.

If you believe you might have AMD, do not wait, contact me today for an assessment in London. The only way to know if you have AMD is to have your eyes examined by an ophthalmologist. You cannot tell if you have the problem yourself and neither can your GP or Optician.

Three reasons why you should seriously consider private AMD treatment in London

I understand that not everyone can afford to have private AMD treatment in London. Others may simply not want to pay for an eye treatment that they can get for free.

Routine AMD treatment is freely available on the NHS, and I’ve carried out thousands of these treatments myself as an NHS consultant and ophthalmic surgeon for the past 15 years, whilst at Moorfields and other NHS Hospitals. My patients are happy to have their AMD treated with the NHS, and can often go about their lives with restored vision.

I do, however, believe that if you can afford private AMD treatment, you owe it to yourself to learn about your options. Going private has many advantages, which many agree outweigh the costs. I would be happy to openly discuss these options with you and their costs with you, at a mutually agreed appointment at either Moorfields or my office on Harley Street.

The top three reasons explained

What you need to know about Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

General information about AMD

What is an ophthalmologist?

A medical doctor that treats eye conditions and eye diseases with medicine and surgery.

What is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

Age-related Macular degeneration is a painless condition affecting the eye, which causes a loss of central vision. In other words what you see right in front of you gets more and more blurry, but the edges of your vision look normal. As well as getting blank spots you can also get distortion of the image too. In fact an artist called Lee Allen wrote a book about his own experiences which summed it up perfectly: A Hole in my Vision.

There are two types of Age-related Macular Degeneration or AMD. ‘Dry’ AMD and ‘Wet’ AMD.

What causes Age Related Macular Degeneration?

To explain the causes of macular degeneration, I’ll first explain how the eye is made up.

Light enters the eye through the clear outer layer (the ‘cornea’), then passes through the lens where it is focussed onto a sharp image onto the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye called the ‘retina’. As you can see the eye is very much like a camera and the ‘retina’ is equivalent to the film or sensor in a camera.

The macula is a small area in the centre of the retina which is the most sensitive to detail – it allows you to thread a needle and read fine print; and anything you look directly at is seen at that spot.

Any problem affecting the macula will result in problems of detail and central vision.

The most common problem with the Macula is age-related Macular Degeneration or AMD.

There are many causes of damage to the macula, such as the formation of deposits called drusen in the macula, or occasionally the growth of new blood vessels under the retina. The commonest problem I see is damage to the macula caused by changes from getting older – in other words Age-related Macular Degeneration.

Are you at greater risk for AMD?

You have a higher risk for AMD if you:

• Are older.
• Are female.
• Smoke.
• Have relatives with AMD.
• Are white (caucasian).

If you are over 50 or have any of the risk factors of AMD, you should have your eyes regularly examined by an ophthalmologist.

What is Dry AMD?

Dry AMD occurs slowly. You may notice the following symptoms:

• Needing brighter light to read.
• Taking longer than normal to adapt to a dark environments, say when moving from bright sunlight to a dark room.
• Finding words and letters look blurrier than normal,
  finding that colours are less bright,
  noticing a blurred spot in the centre of your vision.
• Eventually noticing a dark or black spot in the centre of your vision. This spot starts off small but enlarges over time, although it may never affects your peripheral vision.

What is Wet AMD?

In Wet AMD, new blood vessels grow from the layer of the eye called the choroid, which lies beneath the macula (which why sometimes people call Wet AMD ‘Choroidal neovascularisation’).

These vessels leak blood and fluid (which is why another term for macular degeneration is ‘exudative macular degeneration’) and this causes the problems in your central vision. The longer these problem blood vessels are left to grow the more likely you are to lose your central vision.

Wet AMD is a serious condition and can lead to loss of vision quite quickly.

How is Macular Degeneration Treated?

People who develop dry macular degeneration must carefully and constantly monitor their central vision, because many people with Dry AMD go on to develop the Wet form.

There is no specific treatment for Dry AMD although some studies (The Age-Related Eye Disease Study, AREDS) have shown that taking high-doses of certain vitamins and Zinc slowed down vision loss in people with intermediate or advanced AMD.

Another study (‘AREDS II’) is looking at the effects of other vitamins (including Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which are found in the Macula) on people with AMD.

The supplements that are thought to help are:

• Vitamin C.
• Vitamin E.
• Beta-Carotene.
• Zinc oxide.
• Cupric oxide.

Certain foods contain higher levels of these compounds, foods such as:

• Oranges.
• Kiwi fruit.
• Tomatoes.
• Carrots (Yes, they really are good for your eyes!).
• Leafy green vegetables.
• Mangoes.
• Peas.
• Sweetcorn.

Supplementing your diet with these foods may help your vision and will certainly give you other general health benefits, but please consult your doctor/eye specialist before taking them.

How is Dry related macular degeneration treated?

There is no effective treatment for this condition at present but we can offer visual rehabilitation that can help our patients adapt to the symptoms.

How is Wet Macular Degeneration treated?

Until recently there was very little that could be done to help people with wet AMD. None of our treatments were very good and for most people AMD meant bad news.

However, over the last few years there has been a revolution in treating wet AMD as new treatments have become available. The most exciting of these so far are the anti-VEGF drugs Lucentis and Eylea.

The most effective treatment is a medicine that is injected into the gel at the back of the eye known as the vitreous. This shrinks the abnormal blood vessels and clears the fluid from the macula. Several injections are often needed to completely treat the condition.