Search

Nearly 1.5m people in the UK have macular disease. It affects people of all ages. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common condition, generally affecting people over the age of 55. AMD is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 700,000 people.

Diabetic Macular Oedema (DMO) is a vision threatening complication of diabetes, macular oedema can also occur due to inflammation, retinal vein occlusion, surgery and other reasons, to understand more about these other causes visit our Macular oedema webpage.

Geographic atrophy (GA) is the scientific term for late stage dry aged-related macular degeneration (AMD). It is called geographic atrophy, as the damage to the macula tends to start as patches of damage (or atrophy) that look like islands on a map when a doctor looks at the back of the eye.

All parts of the body change as we age and it's normal to see differences in the way the retina looks in older people. There may be changes to the colour of the retina, and tiny, fatty deposits called drusen may appear.

Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is a blockage of a retinal vein. It is a common cause of sudden painless reduction in vision in people over 60. The blockage of a vein causes blood and other fluids to leak into the retina, which causes damage that reduces vision.

The retina is a light-sensitive layer of tissue lining the back of the eye. The macula is a small area at the centre of the retina responsible for all of our central vision, most of our colour vision, and the fine detail we see.

Myopia, pathological myopia and myopic macular degeneration

Myopic macular degeneration is a type of macular degeneration that occurs in people with severe myopia.

Stargardt disease is a genetic condition caused by a tiny alteration in a single gene. It is also known as fundus flavimaculatus and is the most common form of macular dystrophy. It affects approximately one in 10,000 people and affects both males and females.

This is a group of five related macular conditions caused by mistakes or mutations in a gene called BEST1.