What Is a Maculopathy?
Maculopathy is any illness of the macula, an area at the center of the retina responsible for accurate vision. The retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye, and the macula is a yellow, oval-shaped, area about five millimeters in diameter. While damage to other areas of the retina can result in the loss of peripheral vision, which may go unnoticed for a while, maculopathy causes central vision impairment that the patient usually notices immediately. One of the most common diseases of the macula is macular degeneration, in which vision loss worsens over time. Macular degeneration is usually age-related, abbreviated AMD or ARMD. Macular degeneration begins when small yellow or white deposits called drusen form on the macula. Most people over 40 have some small drusen with no effect on their vision, a situation called age-related maculopathy. Age-related maculopathy is more likely to develop into advanced macular degeneration if the drusen are large and soft r
