TeachableMedicalNews article 05252022
Teachable moment in classrooms:
- special senses chapter – location of macula lutea in the retina of the eye
- special senses chapter – the photoreceptors rods and cones are in the retina
- hemodynamics chapter – capillaries are the thinnest blood vessels
- hemodynamics chapter – endothelial cell location in capillaries
The news item: Recently a report appeared about a drug that restores eyesight:
New technology helps Georgetown veteran restore his eyesight
If you’re living with blurry vision, there’s a chance a new device can help you get your eyesight back without frequent visits to the doctor. The newly FDA-approved Susvimo implant helped one Georgetown veteran preserve his vision after being diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration.
The article states that AMD (wet, age-related macular degeneration) is the leading cause of blindness over the age 60, that this disorder is caused by growth and scarring of blood vessels under the retina, and that the drug-delivery implant has restored vision in 90% of the treated individuals.
So, Why Do I Care?? Blindness is a condition where a significant part of the eyesight is lost, and such loss has a severe negative impact on people’s lives. In the USA alone there are about a million patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, and without treatment most of them will go blind.
Plain English, Please!!! First, let’s talk about how the structure called macula plays a role in our vision. When we say we see something, the image of that something has to be turned into a nerve impulse so