Share with a friendWhat it is:
Anti-VEGF treatment is a way to slow vision loss in people who have a condition called “wet” age-related macular degeneration.
What You Can Expect:
The anti-VEGF drug must be injected into your eye with a very fine needle. Your ophthalmologist (Eye M.D.) will clean your eye to prevent infection and will administer an anesthetic to your eye to reduce pain. Usually, patients receive multiple anti-VEGF injections over the course of many months.
Who Is a Good Candidate:
Your ophthalmologist will determine if the treatment is appropriate for you. Only patients with the wet form of AMD can benefit from it.
In some cases, your ophthalmologist may recommend combining anti-VEGF treatment with other therapies. The treatment that’s right for you will depend on the specific condition of your macular degeneration.
Anti-VEGF treatment is a step forward in the treatment of wet AMD because it targets the underlying cause of abnormal blood vessel growth. The treatment may offer new hope to thousands of people diagnosed with wet AMD.
In-Depth Information:
| What It’s For | How It Works | Risks | All |
What It’s For
Anti-VEGF treatment is a way to slow vision loss in people who have a condition called “wet” age-related macular degeneration.
How It Works
Researchers who study wet AMD have found that a certain chemical in your body is critical in causing abnormal blood vessels to grow under the retina. That chemical is called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. Recently, scientists have developed several new drugs (anti-VEGF) that can block the trouble-causing VEGF. Blocking VEGF reduces the growth of abnormal blood vessels, slows their leakage, and helps to slow vision loss.
Risks
As with any medical procedure, there is a small risk of complications following anti-VEGF treatment. Any complications that might occur usually result from the injection itself, which in rare circumstances can injure the eye’s lens or retina or lead to an infection. For most people, though, the benefit of the treatment outweighs the small risk of injection injury.
