Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in older Americans, but researchers are now investigating a new technique that may be able to reverse it in its early stages.
More than two million people in the U.S. have advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the stage in which severe vision loss occurs, and millions more have early stage AMD. Although some treatments may help slow vision loss, the disease is irreversible.
But researchers in Australia, using human and animal studies, are developing a treatment involving a nanosecond laser that they hope could reverse early stage AMD and may have the potential of treating later stage disease as well.
Preliminary research shows that the laser treatment limits disease progression and there is evidence it may reverse AMD. This study also showed that nanosecond laser treatment in one eye can produce positive effects in the untreated eye.
The study was published in the FASEB Journal.
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