Nanosecond laser therapy helps slow age-related macular degeneration

Nov. 20, 2014

Seeking to find more effective laser therapy to slow down age-related macular generation (AMD), a team of researchers has found that nanosecond laser therapy did not result in damage to the retina, the sensitive light-detecting tissue at the back of the eye.

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Seeking to find more effective laser therapy to slow down age-related macular generation (AMD), an ophthalmic condition that affects older adults and results in vision loss, researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia have found that nanosecond laser therapy did not result in damage to the retina, the sensitive light-detecting tissue at the back of the eye.

Associate professor Erica Fletcher from the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience says that their study was the first to detail how nanosecond laser treatment may improve eye health in those with AMD. In the early stages, the disease is characterized by the presence of small, fatty deposits called drusen and thickening in a membrane at the back of the eye.

The study explores how this laser may help in limiting retinal disease, showing that it improved the health of important supporting cells at the back of the eye. It also showed evidence that nanosecond laser treatment in one eye can also produce positive effects in the other untreated eye. This raises the possibility that monocular treatment may be sufficient to treat disease in both eyes.

Full details of the work appear in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology; for more information, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.14-262444.

(Thumbnail image via Shutterstock)

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