The development of innovative treatments for debilitating diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is crucial to advance patient care and to reduce burdens on patients, caregivers, and physicians. The dry, or nonexudative, form of AMD affects approximately 85% to 90% of individuals with AMD, and, until now, there have been no approved treatments for this condition aside from nutritional supplementation.
AT A GLANCE
- The Valeda Light Delivery System is a light-based approach to treatment with a CE Mark in the European Union for multiple ocular indications, including dry AMD.
- Photobiomodulation (PBM), as performed with the Valeda, acts at the mitochondrial level by improving cellular output and reestablishing metabolic function.
- Patients with dry AMD treated with PBM have shown improvements in clinical, anatomic, and quality-of-life assessments.
The Valeda Light Delivery System (LumiThera) was designed as a safe, multiwavelength platform for photobiomodulation (PBM). The device received the CE Mark in the European Union, where its indicated uses include treatment of ocular damage and disease using PBM, including inhibition of inflammatory mediators, edema, or drusen deposition; improvement of wound healing following ocular trauma or surgery; and increase in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in patients with degenerative diseases such as dry AMD.
The underlying mitochondrial mechanisms of PBM therapy and recent clinical studies demonstrating positive improvements in patients1-5 have increased interest in PBM as a treatment approach in dry AMD.
In our specialty clinic for vitreous, retina, and macula therapy, we see 20 to 40 patients with macular degeneration, particularly AMD, each day. For about a year now, we have offered PBM treatment with Valeda to patients as an alternative or supportive treatment option for dry AMD.
