Ophthalmologists Consider Anti-VEGF Treatments for AMD Most Significant Advancement of Last Decade

In a Dec. 2009 online survey, 51.9 percent of members of the American Academy of Ophthalmology cited anti-vascular endothelial growth factors for "wet" age-related macular degeneration as the most significant advancement in treatment over the past decade, according to an AAO news release.

According to the release, 423 members responded to the survey. Anti-VEGF medications, which were ranked as most important, inhibit VEGF, which can cause abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye's retina and lead to irreversible vision loss, according to the release. This class of drugs was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Dec. 2004, allowing ophthalmologists to gain control over wet AMG and hopefully prevent vision loss in patients.

Number two on the list was optical coherence tomography with 23.9 percent of members citing the treatment, followed distantly at 6.6 percent by a glaucoma treatment, Prostamide eye drops.

Several other advances — including premium intraocular lenses, the Femtosecond laser, gene therapy for Leber's congenital amaurosis and Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty — were each cited by about 3 percent of respondents, according to the release.

Read the AAO's release about the most important ophthalmology advancements in the past decade. http://aao.org/newsroom/release/20100114.cfm