Visaline in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration: a pilot study

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the main cause of a reduction in visual acuity in patients over the age of 65 years. A positive influence of medical treatment (i.e. with vitamins and trace minerals) has been suggested but remains unproven. In this randomized, double-blind study, 20 patients in an early stage of AMD were included. Over a period of 6 months, 9 patients were treated with Visaline and 11 with a placebo. The effect of the treatment was not statistically different between the two groups, admittedly small in number, in terms of visual and retinal acuity, color vision, and contrast sensitivity. Despite the lack of such measureable differences, the patients' own subjective assessments, however, were much better in the Visaline-treated group. Due to the short duration of the observation time, we can not comment on a possible long-term effect.