The macula is that part of the retina that serves the central vision.  When something is wrong with the macula, whatever you look at disappears.  You have to look to the side to see what you're trying to look at. 

                          Normal  vision                                   Vision with advanced macular degeneration

Macular degeneration occurs when the macula wears out.  It occurs almost exclusively in people over 60 years of age.  Dry macular degeneration is a very slow wearing out of the macula with accompanying gradual vision loss.  Wet macular degeneration is when the macula suddenly bleeds and causes sudden loss of central vision.

Risk factors for macular degeneration include smoking, genetics, cardiovascular disease, among others.  The best thing you can do to decrease the risk of macular degeneration is to live and eat healthy, stop smoking, exercise, eating a lot of dark green leafy vegetables, and consider taking a specific formulation of multivitamins. 

Dr. Quaranta monitors macular degeneration generally every 6 months with dilated eye examinations, photography, and optical coherence tomography scans (to try to catch impending bleeding before it happens).  He sends the patient to the best retina specialist in the Phoenix area when there is evidence of worsening. 

For wet macular degeneration, the most current treatment is multiple injections of Avastin or Lucentis over the period of several months.  Avastin is a drug originally used for colorectal cancer.   The attempt with Avastin is to stop macular bleeding, salvage remaining vision, and seek to restore a degree of lost vision if possible.