AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION: CURRENT ASPECTS OF PATHOGENESIS AND TREATMENT

About 1.1 million people are estimated to have age-related macular degeneration in West Germany. Anatomical aspects of the normal macula and physiological ageing processes in the retina will be discribed including alterations in the choroid, in Bruch’s membrane, the pigment epithelium and the sensory retina. Risk factors for the development of age-related macular degeneration are age per se, perhaps ethnologic characteristics, ocular characteristics, and perhaps environmental factors. The histopathology of age-related macular degeneration will be shown in respect to the formation of drusen in Bruch’s membrane, changes in the retinal pigment epithelium, subretinal scar formation, and the development of subretinal choroidal neovascularisation. The clinical importance of subretinal neovascularisation will be discussed including the indications and problems of laser treatment.