Avastin

A very common cause of blindness in the elderly, macular degeneration is age-related (AMD), which is a lesion that appears in the central area of the retina called the macula, where abnormal blood vessels grow back of the retina are leaking blood and fluid, resulting in a rapid loss of vision. This injury causes distortion in the images and a visual acuity loss that causes difficulty distinguishing the shapes of objects.

Doctors have been using a drug called Avastin ® as a treatment for macular degeneration associated with aging (for its initials in English, AMD) wet type with promising results.

Avastin has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States as a growth inhibitor of blood vessels used to treat rectal cancer slipped, but is not approved for AMD. Avastin is manufactured by the same pharmaceutical company Genentech, Inc., which makes Lucentis ®, which was approved by the FDA in 2006 as a therapy for the wet AMD. Lucentis is actually a form of Avastin by Genentech specifically developed for the treatment of AMD through the use of smaller molecules to increase penetration in the retina. Both are managed similarly through a series of injections into the vitreous of the eye (the clear jelly-like substance that fills the eye from the back of the lens to the retina) at regular intervals in the course of months or a year .

Some patients treated with Avastin macular edema resolved, improving the appearance of macules, and vision. The goal of treatment is to prevent further deterioration of vision, although some patients have improved vision, the medication does not return the previously lost vision, nor stop the decreased vision caused by the progression of this disease.