Geographic Atrophy: Managing Patient Expectations in the Era of Treatment

Geographic Atrophy: Managing Patient Expectations in the Era of Treatment

Available from: 1/09/2026 (AEST)

Where to publish: www.mieducation.com

Provider: Mivision

Contact: Nikki Byrne, [E] nikki@mivision.com.au, [P] 02 8336 8616

Activity Outline

For most of my career, geographic atrophy (GA) consultations had a grim predictability. I would explain that GA was the advanced dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I would show the optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan, talk about smoking cessation, Age Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) supplements, Amsler grid monitoring, low-vision support, and watching carefully for conversion to wet (neovascular) AMD (nAMD). Then came the sentence nobody wanted: we did not have a treatment that could meaningfully slow it. So, we monitored, documented progression, and hoped the fovea held out.

That has changed. We can now assess selected patients with GA for treatment. The difficulty is that this is not the wet AMD story. There is usually no fluid to dry, no early relief from distortion, and no loading phase after which the patient says the vision is clearer. These injections may slow the spread of atrophy. They do not bring back retina that has already gone.

If that is not clear before the first injection, the patient is already on track to be disappointed. Reading is still hard. The blind patch is still there. The hallway at dusk is still a problem. The scan may show the treatment effect, but the patient may not feel it.

Learning Objectives

• Identify and refer suitable geographic atrophy patients for treatment,
• Help set patient expectations for GA treatment
• Understand the evidence base for current complement inhibitor therapy in GA.

Max CPD hours awarded: 1

Session Information