Monés Carilla Jordi

Exudative or wet AMD

Exudative AMD, also known as wet or neovascular AMD, is the less common form of age-related macular degeneration (about 15 %) but tends to progress more rapidly. It requires immediate treatment to stop the central vision from being irreversibly destroyed within a short period of time (weeks or months).

The main treatment to attempt to control wet AMD uses the application of angiogenesis inhibitors via intraocular injections directly into the vitreous cavity. This treatment manages to stop the illness in three out of four cases and improve it in one out of three. In specific or more resistant cases, other alternative treatments must be tried, such as laser photocoagulation, either directly or of the supply vessels, as well as photodynamic therapy and, in some cases, their combination with macular vitreoretinal surgery.

The Institut de la Màcula employs the Treatment Fusion© process developed by our centre to optimise and personalise treatment, reducing the risk of long-term loss of vision that can occur with other procedures currently in use.

Degenerative myopia

Myopia is a state of abnormal eye growth associated with degenerative changes in its structure. Patients with myopia have a high risk of developing retinal pathologies, such as macular disorders or a detached retina, so they must be regularly checked to detect any possible injury. In those cases where retinal complications are diagnosed resulting from myopia, each patient will receive individualised treatment that may require intravitreal injections, laser photocoagulation or vitreoretinal surgery.

In the Institut, we evaluate each case with the utmost precision and experience to choose the most appropriate treatment for each patient to optimize visual gain on the long term.

Diabetic retinopathy and Diabetic macular oedema

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the ocular complications of diabetes, an illness that affects the body's ability to control its blood sugar levels and to which the retina is particularly vulnerable.

Macular oedema is the inflammation and accumulation of fluid in the macula, the part of the eye responsible for central and pinpoint vision (the one we use to read or recognise faces) and occurs when the retina's blood vessels leak. The most frequent form of macular oedema is associated with diabetic retinopathy, although there are many retinal pathologies that can cause macular oedema, such as vein blockage or after cataract surgery.

There are many possible treatments, such as eye drops, intravitreal and periocular injections, laser photocoagulation, MicroPulse laser or vitreoretinal microsurgery, which will be applied depending on the severity of each case.

Vein occlusion

Retinal vein occlusion is the second most common cause of vascular disorders of the retina after diabetic retinopathy, and a frequent cause of blindness. It is defined as the dilation of the retinal veins, associated with retinal hemorrhages, intraretinal oedema, retinal ischaemia and macular oedema.

Today several drugs are available that have dramatically changed the visual prognosis for such patients. In some severe cases surgery will be necessary, both for retinal complications and also those of neovascular glaucoma. Today, thanks to the advances in therapy, the incidence of such severe cases is increasingly rare.