Located in Tucson, Arizona, Retina Associates is a health facility led by Dr. Cameron Javid, who provides a full range of ophthalmology care solutions. The Retina Associates team handles conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, which involves a breakdown or damage to the macula.

A small area at the back of the eye, the macula enables fine details to be clearly made out and activities such as driving and reading accomplished. With the wet type of AMD, abnormal blood vessels expand into a layer under the retina. As they leak blood and fluid, a significant blind spot is created in the vision’s center.

An outpatient procedure, photodynamic therapy involves the application of a light-activated drug. Typically injected in the arm, it travels to the macula and interacts with the abnormal blood vessels. At this point, targeting low-intensity laser light to the retina activates the drug in the impacted area. This eliminates the abnormal blood vessels while leaving the unaffected vessels intact and has no lasting negative impact on the retina.

Remember that photodynamic therapy is not used in treating the dry form of AMD, which involves a thinning of the macula tissues and is part of the aging process. In addition, fluorescein angiographic photographs must show well-defined blood vessels for surgery to be viable.