Hope For Macular Degeneration Patients

CENTRAL OHIO—A groundbreaking surgery here in Columbus promised new hope in the treatment of the No. 1 cause of adult blindness.

NBC 4’s Colleen Marshall GETS TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER.

Macular degeneration blinded 500,000 Americans last year, and that number was expected to double during the next five years.

Macular degeneration is a breakdown in the blood vessels in the retina, the tissue lining of the eye, and is caused by the same things that cause heart problems: fatty diets, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, age, obesity and heredity.

The Retina Group, in Downtown, was set be the first in the Midwest or East to surgically insert medicine to the back of the eye through a new catheter system.

The surgery was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

“In between the retina and the sclera, which is the white part of the eye, we pass the catheter all the way back directly to where those abnormal blood vessels are, and we deliver the medicine,“ Dr. Michael Samuel said. Samuel is with The Retina Group.

“This is supposed to relieve me for six to eight months of having to have that needle in the eyeball, which would be heaven,“ said patient Mary Thompson.

Thompson was diagnosed with macular degeneration four years ago.

It was thought the new surgery could provide a cure for some people.

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