title: Emerging treatments for wet age-related macular degeneration.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Wet or exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the United States for individuals over the age of 65 years. Wet AMD is characterized by the formation of choroidal neovascularization, which can lead to edema, hemorrhage and scarring of the macula. This leads to metamorphopsia and vision loss. Without treatment, the loss of vision is permanent. The current gold standard treatment of wet AMD consists of intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications.
  
  
  METHODS
  Numerous new therapies in the drug pipeline aim at addressing limitations of current treatments. Future therapies involve novel compounds that attack different parts of the VEGF cascade, novel delivery systems aimed at reducing the frequency of intraocular injections, combination therapies and the use of radiation in conjunction with intravitreal therapies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Limitations of current treatments include the need for repeated injections, the high financial costs and treatment burdens of repeated injections, the risk of adverse ocular and systemic adverse events, and the inability to completely reverse the disease process of wet AMD. There are many new therapies and approaches in the pipeline which hold promise for improving the treatment of wet AMD.
authors.affiliation: Cole Eye Institute , 9500 Euclid Avenue, Desk i3, Cleveland, OH 44195 , USA +1 216 444 6702 ; +1 216 445 2226 ; pkkaiser@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Adiel G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Peter K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D058449:Intravitreal Injections / Q000379:methods; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000188:drug therapy*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A