Video: What is Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

In this video I am talking about Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the different types and what the difference is between the wet and dry type.

AMD stands for Age-Related Macular Degeneration as you can see it’s quite a mouthful and that’s why we abbreviate it to AMD. One of the things that we need to establish is what the different types of AMD are.

The majority of the people, as they get older, develop wear and tear – if you like – of the cells of the back of the eye – in the retina.  And that is dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. It’s a natural ageing of the cells, much like our hearing goes, or our joints start to creak, as we get older, our eyes naturally age. There’s nothing we can do about that because we have not worked out the cure for reverse ageing yet. We’re trying to, but as I say, we haven’t got there yet.

The other form is wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration and that’s a  subtle difference. That’s where blood vessels can grow from underneath the retina and can bleed quite abruptly and cause problems with the vision quite quickly.

Why is the distinction important?

Well wet Macular Degeneration can be treated, and over the last 10 years we’ve developed a very effective treatment to reverse those blood vessels and encourage them not to bleed and cause further problems.

So, dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration is a general ageing of the back of the eye, and wet is when blood vessels abruptly bleed and cause problems with the vision.

Now, if you want any further information on this, I have some lovely diagrams in my clinic to show you. Please ring the number in the end of the video and then we can discuss it.

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About Jaheed Khan

My name is Jaheed Khan and I am a Consultant Eye Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Clinica London.

My special expertise is in cataract surgery and conditions affecting the back of the eye, the retina, including AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration), diabetic retinopathy, and various other diseases of the retina.

I have over 15 years experience in treating people with eye problems just like you, and have published extensively in scientific journals about treating eye conditions.

In my NHS practice, I am responsible day-to-day for the training of the eye surgeons of the future.