A University of Arizona professor is testing a procedure that might make the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration easier, cheaper, and more effective. Professor Russell Hamilton had noted that the monthly injections used in typical current treatment are uncomfortable for patients, expensive, and not always effective.

Wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow—and then leak blood—behind the eye’s macula. Hamilton’s new approach involves a device that inserts a small radioactive seed behind the eye. The seed delivers targeted on-going radiation to the abnormal blood vessels.

In early clinical tests on humans, treatment begins with one typical injection and then follows up with the insertion of the radioactive seed. The process is minimally invasive, and is done in a few minutes under local anesthetic. Early trials are promising.

For more information, visit: http://uanews.org/node/45007.