MACULAR DEGENERATION

Gunk build up

Macular Degeneration refers to age-related degeneration of the macula. Appropriately named. It results in vision loss in the center of the visual field. It’s progressive and mostly untreatable. It comes in two flavors:

Dry MD is due to the deposition of cellular waste in the macula. This trash is called a drusen. It takes many years for symptoms to begin. On fundoscopy, the Drusen sometimes looks like a smattering of yellow blobs. 

Wet MD, or exudative MD, is a severe complication of dry MD. If you get a lot of drusens, new blood vessels have to form to keep them perfused (mediated by VEGF). Angiogenesis of the retina is actually a terrible phenomenon! Those new blood vessels block light! It’s “wet” because the new vessels often bleed into the retina, which is easy to spot on fundoscopy (see my sub-par illustration below). Its onset is rapid, apparently.  It can be treated (semi-effectively) with anti-VEGF medications that are injected into the eye.