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Macular disease is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK and developed world. It affects people of all ages and nearly 1.5m people in the UK have macular disease.

The macula is part of the retina at the back of the eye. It’s a round, yellow spot that has a slight oval shape and is only about 5mm across, but is responsible for our central vision, most of our colour vision and the fine detail of what we see.

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.

Macular degeneration, also referred to as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), is a progressive eye condition that affects the central part of the retina known as the macula. 

Dry age-related macular disease (AMD) is a slow deterioration of the cells of the macula, often over many years, as the retinal cells die off and are not renewed. The term ‘dry’ does not mean the person has dry eyes, just that the condition is not wet AMD.

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.