Subretinal neovascularization in senile macular degeneration.

When fluorescein angiograms from 563 patients with senile macular degeneration examined at a large community hospital during a 9.5-year period were retrospectively reviewed, 200 patients were found to have a dry atrophic type of senile macular degeneration, consisting of drusen and retinal pigment epithelial changes. Of the 363 patients with exudative senile macular degeneration, 244 had subretinal neovascular membranes. Seventy-eight membranes were less than 1 disk diameter in size. Most of the large (157 of 224) and small (44 of 78) membranes showed a predilection for the fovea. Only 13 large and six small neovascular membranes were 200 microns or more from the center of the foveal avascular zone.