Wow, am I EVER excited about this topic! We are the first in SK to offer Macumira – Canada’s first treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD)! For my entire existence as an optometrist, when I diagnosed someone with dry AMD, I could only recommend the following: FT UV protection, take specialized vitamins for eye health, maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle, quit smoking and hope the disease does not progress. Now, I can actually offer some hope to my patients with Macumira being available.
What Is AMD?
So first, what is AMD? AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the world, and it comes in two forms: dry and wet (abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina). Wet AMD is traditionally treated with needles in the eye to try and slow things down and this is done by an ophthalmologist. Dry AMD, on the other hand, has never had a treatment option, however in its worse stages (called geographic atrophy), the vision loss can be more de-habilitating than wet AMD. Dry AMD is about 85-90% of the cases of AMD. In the early stages of AMD, there are usually no symptoms for the patient. In the intermediate stages of AMD, vision begins to become blurry, wavy, patchy and distorted. In the severe stages, it can lead to irreversible blindness.
- After 45 years old, 9% of the population will get AMD
- 2.5 million Canadians are affected by AMD
- There is a strong genetic link with AMD
Macumira Treatments
Macumira works on the principles of neurostimulation and photobiomodulation; a concept that has been in modern medicine for many years. Essentially, a small microcurrent is delivered to the retina and causes cells that are trying to die to “wake up” again, so they can work properly! Here are some facts about the treatments themselves:
- Quick, painless, non-invasive and only 32 minutes long
- 4 treatments are needed in the first 10 days, and at this point, this will be the best you will see.
- To maintain results, a visit is needed every 10-12 weeks.
- Each treatment is $499
- There is a satisfaction guarantee in the first month if there are no objective and subjective benefits noted.
Contraindications: pacemakers + cochlear implants. This means the procedure is incredibly safe and zero adverse events have been reported.
What Did The Clinical Trial Show?
- 48% of patients showed a 2 line improvement on the vision chart
- Patients maintained their visual improvements for the duration of the trial
- Regardless if there was an improvement clinically or not, all patients in the treatment group felt their vision improved
What Are Our Patients Saying?
The technology is new to our clinic, however one of the girls who works for me enrolled her Grandma to get Macumira. After her first treatment, she was an amazing super-responder, because she called and said she had seen details on the cushions on her couch that she had not seen in YEARS. She was ecstatic. And after the 4 visits, she is so happy and really views this as life changing.
We have other patients doing Macumira that are very early in their AMD journey, however they are terrified of getting worse, so they will do whatever it takes to accomplish this. They are either scared to end up like their parents did, or they are care takers of their spouse and do not want to risk losing their drivers license. Whatever your reason is, we are here to help!
We are accepting all patients to try Macumira at our clinic, but you need a recent comprehensive eye exam in the last year and we would need to gain access to those records.
We very much look forward to helping the people of Saskatchewan and are so excited to be offering this technology! Finally, we can offer some hope for those suffering with dry AMD.
Thanks for stopping by!
For more info:
MacuMira: Clinically Proven & Approved Dry AMD Treatment
-Dr. Courtney Kennedy
