Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffAge-related macular degeneration is a chronic eye disease marked by deterioration of tissue in the part of your eye that's responsible for central vision. The deterioration occurs in the macula (MAK-u-luh), which is in the center of the retina — the layer of tissue on the inside back wall of your eyeball.
Macular degeneration doesn't cause total blindness, but it worsens your quality of life by blurring or causing a blind spot in your central vision. Clear central vision is necessary for reading, driving, recognizing faces and doing detail work.
Macular degeneration tends to affect adults age 50 and older. Dry macular degeneration, in which tissue deterioration is not accompanied by bleeding, is the most common form of the disease
Symptoms
