December 28, 2008

Avastin Macular Treatment Warning

 

Avastin Macular Treatment Warning!

Have you been advised by your eye or retinal specialist to treat your macular degeneration symptoms with eye injections?

If so please read on….

In 2006 the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Lucentis for the treatment of wet amd or macular degeneration wet as it also known.

Clinical trials showed that Lucentis, administered via injection approximately every four weeks, slowed the progression of vision loss. Some people even reported improved vision. Great news for those with this essentially incurable condition.

Before the approval of Lucentis another drug, Avastin, was approved by the FDA specifically for the treatment of colon cancer. Retinal specialists were also allowed to use the drug Avastin for "off-label" use to treat wet AMD.

Lucentis and Avastin both work in a similar way against the blood vessel growth which is a factor in macular degeneration wet.

Despite the more recent approval of Lucentis many retinal specialists have continued to use Avastin because it costs a lot less than Lucentis. Lucentis costs about $2,000 per injection which is about 40 times more expensive than Avastin!

In December 2008 Genentech, the drug company which distributes Avastin and Lucentis in the US, revealed to doctors that a number of patients had suffered eye inflammation after being injected with Avastin. Eye inflammation is also a risk factor with Lucentis but the number of inflammations from the Avastin injections was unusually high. According to Genentech most of the eye inflammation cases were eventually traced to a single batch of the Avastin drug.

If you are considering the use of Avastin macular injections it might be wise to discuss your options with your retinal specialist in light of these recent findings.

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December 3, 2008

Macular Degeneration Treatments Available Today

Ask anyone who suffers from macular degeneration and they will tell you that as soon as they had their diagnosis they started to look for macular degeneration treatments.

It is good to know that there are things that can be done to treat this condition that affects the eyes and can lead to poor vision and even blindness in some cases.

One form of treatment for wet macular degeneration is laser treatment. This is performed as an outpatient (with no need to stay in hospital) and used to kill the blood vessels that leak and cause the degeneration. Unfortunately only around 10 percent of the people suffering from wet degeneration can have this treatment and there is a risk that it will kill off healthy blood vessels too, but many think that this is a risk worth taking.

Another type of treatment is photodynamic therapy where a dye which is sensitive to light is injected into the patient’s bloodstream. This then eventually works its way to the retina and the blood vessels that are causing the problem are highlighted. A special cold laser is then shone into the eye which causes a chemical in the dye to kill off the vessels.
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Macular Degeneration Eye Problems: What You Should Look Out For

Macular degeneration eye problems are something more and more of us are having to face.

Poor eyesight can be a terrible hindrance to a person’s life, particularly if it seems to come on suddenly and leave the sufferer with poor eyesight or even blindness.

This type of degeneration of the eye is very obvious and anyone who notices such changes is in the position to attempt to get the correct medical and optical support.

But what happens if poor eyesight creeps up on you?

Macular degeneration eye problems can be hard to pinpoint and identify when they begin, as the symptoms can start gradually and build up over time.

Macular degeneration is a progressive disease.

It eventually leaves the sufferer with significant vision disturbance or worse. With this in mind it is a good idea to be aware of the types of symptom that can sometimes signal the start of these macular degeneration eye problems.

The full name of the disease is age-related macular degeneration, often shortened to AMD, and sometimes to ARMD.

As there are two types of macular degeneration, wet or dry, it is wise to know what to look for in both types as their causes are different, yet both can result in poor eyesight or blindness.

So if you notice that your eyesight is becoming blurred, distorted or you have blind spots in your central vision you could be experiencing macular degeneration. Similarly if you find it difficult to read text that you previously had no difficulty with it could be the start of macular degeneration. You should also be aware of this if you find you need more light to read by.

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