At The Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins laser techniques not only help diagnose patients now, but also may be used in the future for laser-targeted drug therapy. This promises to make medication more effective by directing it precisely to specific areas of the retina. Currently, laser therapy to seal off diseased blood vessels in the retina and slow the disease is performed routinely at Wilmer. Once thought to be technically impossible to perform, it was developed by a Wilmer surgeon and is now done regularly at Wilmer. Surgeons also are conducting a clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of a new type of surgery to treat AMD. In addition to surgery, doctors use special dyes to detect and treat AMD and utilize the investigational enzyme chondroitinase to prevent macular holes from enlarging during surgery. In order for doctors at Wilmer to determine if you have neovascular macular degeneration and if you might benefit from laser treatment, they need a brief summary report from your ophthalmologist with copies of the most recent photographs and if available, fluorescein angiograms. These should be mailed with a self-addressed return envelope for a reply. Bitmaps of digital images can be e-mailed. The quality is variable. Recently, there has been interest in new treatments such as alpha interferon injections, radiation therapy, or surgery for macular degeneration. The interferon injections are not helpful and are associated with systemic side effects. Doctor's here doubt the radiation therapy works. In fact, one recent report concluded it may be worse than observation. The definite answers are not yet known. The surgery for the removal of abnormal blood vessels is also experimental. Preliminary results show that rare patients might benefit but we do not know whether or not the average patient will be helped or harmed by this surgery at this time. The Wilmer Eye Institute is looking for patients who might fit the eligibility criteria for participation in a research program where half of the patients would be followed and/or perhaps have laser treatment and the other half would have the surgical procedure. They also have underway a study of photodynamic therapy for neovascular macular degeneration using a new laser. This treatment may allow closure of the abnormal vessels with less retinal damage than the standard approach. Colleagues in they department are studying retinal pigment epithelial transplants but there are no published results at this time. To determine if it would be of value for you to travel here to discuss any of our treatment programs, it would be best to send a summary report and photographs in advance.
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