What is wet AMD?
Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula. These new blood vessels tend to be very fragile and often leak blood and fluid. The blood and fluid raise the macula from its normal place at the back of the eye. Damage to the macula occurs rapidly. With wet AMD, loss of central vision can occur quickly. Wet AMD is considered to be advanced AMD and is more severe than the dry form. An early symptom of wet Age-related Macular Degeneration is that straight lines appear wavy. If you notice this condition or other changes to your vision, contact your eye doctor at once. You may need a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
• Answer: Wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula. These new blood vessels tend to be very fragile and often leak blood and fluid. The blood and fluid raise the macula from its normal place at the back of the eye. Damage to the macula occurs rapidly. With wet AMD, loss of central vision can occur quickly. Wet AMD is considered to be advanced AMD and is more severe than the dry form. An early symptom of wet AMD is that straight lines appear wavy. If you notice this condition or other changes to your vision, contact your eye care professional at once. You need a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
Wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula. These new blood vessels tend to be very fragile and often leak blood and fluid. The blood and fluid raise the macula from its normal place at the back of the eye. Damage to the macula occurs rapidly. With wet AMD, loss of central vision can occur quickly. Wet AMD is also known as advanced AMD. It does not have stages like dry AMD. An early symptom of wet AMD is that straight lines appear wavy. If you notice this condition or other changes to your vision, contact your eye care professional at once. You need a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
Wet AMD accounts for about 10 percent of all cases of macular degeneration. Wet AMD is also called choroidal neovascularization (CNV), subretinal neovascularization, or exudative or disciform degeneration. In wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the macula. These vessels leak blood and fluid into the macula that damage photoreceptor cells. Wet AMD often progresses rapidly and can cause substantial loss of central vision.
The other major type of AMD, some of the other terms associated with it are: exudative, “leakage”, fluid, bleeding, disciform, membrane, choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and subretinal neovascularization (SRNV). It is basically an evolving scar; bleeding and leakage are the early stages of scar formation wet AMD is not caused by bleeding, bleeding is a result of an evolving scar.
