Advancements in the treatment of Geographic Atrophy

Dr. Michael Dollin, MD, FRCSC, Vitreoretinal Surgeon

Duration: 1 minute and 57 seconds

Treatments for age related macular degeneration are of two forms. There's a treatment for wet macular degeneration and an emerging treatment for geographic atrophy, which is the advanced form of dry macular degeneration.

The treatments for wet macular degeneration have been available for approximately 15 years and are typically medicines that stop the growth of abnormal blood vessels that are growing under the retina. Those vessels are leaky, and they can hemorrhage, and the medicine that are injected typically cause those blood vessels to dry up and rest.

Treatments for macular degeneration typically is given monthly at the start of a treatment program and then the interval between injections lengthens, as stability is achieved. While there have been no previous treatments available for geographic atrophy, there are emerging treatments that are currently being evaluated for approval in Canada. These medicines are also injection medicines that have the goal of slowing the geographic atrophy from progressing in the back of the eye.

Geographic atrophy is driven by a complex series of inflammatory reactions that occur in the back of the eye and this new generation of medicines help suppress that inflammatory process. Because geographic atrophy is a slow, gradual and unrelenting condition, treatment for this type of macular degeneration typically occurs monthly or bimonthly and continues at that same interval into the future period. As long as there is central vision to be protected from the advancing geographic atrophy, the injections will likely be continued.

Ultimately, it’s the patients that receive consistent and more frequent treatment that tend to benefit most from these treatments for both types of macular advanced macular degeneration.

Presenter: Dr. Michael Dollin, Ophthalmologist, Ottawa, ON

Local Practitioners: Ophthalmologist