According to a published study in this month’s Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy), patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at all stages of the disease can benefit from cataract surgery.

It was also revealed that the steroid triamcinolone could prove to be effective in advanced diabetic macular edema (DME) patients when standard treatment options have failed to deliver any results.

From News-Medical.Net:

Cataract surgery improved vision in patients with any stage-from mild to advanced- AMD in the first study to include an adequate number of advanced AMD patients. Data was obtained from the multicenter, prospective Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), which was organized primarily to evaluate the effects of high-dose vitamin and mineral supplements on cataract and AMD. As the American population ages AMD prevalence is expected to rise, and many patients will concurrently develop cataract; both diseases can cause blindness if untreated.

“Earlier epidemiology had suggested cataract surgery might worsen AMD, so the data from the AREDS cohort study were evaluated to answer this important question,” said Emily Y. Chew, MD, who led the study for NEI.

It was remarked by lead researcher Mark Gillies, PhD, that treatment with IVTA (intravitreal triamcinolone) could be considered while carefully selecting advanced DME patients when standard treatment options have failed to deliver the expected results.