Treatment of macular degeneration, according to Bangerter.
Teichmann KD
King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital P.O. Box Riyadh 7191, Riyadh
11 462 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
++966 1/482 1234 ++966 1/482 1908.
Eur J Med Res, 1997 Oct, 2:10, 445-54
Abstract
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of visual
loss among elderly patients. Although some risk factors have been
determined, the ultimate cause of the disease is not known. For a
long time, therapeutic nihilism has been the rule among
ophthalmologists confronted with such patients. Bangerter has not
shared this attitude, especially since the time that he
incidentally discovered, more than 40 years ago, the beneficial
effects of radiotherapy, in discouraging the growth of new vessels
at the posterior pole of the eye. A variety of approaches are
combined and used by Bangerter in the treatment of the different
types of AMD, including retrobulbar injections of either
vasodilating medications (in the dry – or atrophic – type) or
corticosteroids (in the wet – or exudative – type), general
medical measures aimed at improving metabolic and vascular
functions such as supplementation with trace elements,
antioxidants, and vitamins; ozone therapy; advice to increase
physical fitness, improve nutrition, and abstain from smoking; and
protection from excessive light exposure. Being convinced of the
usefulness of his type of combination treatment, he has always
rejected undertaking controlled clinical trials, of only single
aspects of the therapy, as unethical and invalid. For this reason,
scientific journals have not proven cooperative in several
attempts at publishing his results, as collected in retrospective
surveys. Recently, however, some of the several approaches
combined by Bangerter in treating AMD have been pronounced
effective by other investigators. We present here an overview of
his treatment approaches, as few people are aware of them, to
clear up misconceptions and to set records straight.
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