Report on the nationwide epidemiological survey of exudative age-related macular degeneration in Japan.

The research Committee on Chorioretinal Degeneration, in cooperation with the Research Committee on the Epidemiology of Intractable Diseases, performed the second nationwide epidemiological survey of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 1993. The number of exudative AMD patients in all ophthalmology departments throughout Japan was estimated to be 14,400 in 1993. This number was estimated to have almost doubled over the six year period since the initial survey in 1987. The number of people visiting ophthalmology departments due to exudative AMD was 53 males and 20 females per 100,000 population aged 50 years or over. The percentage of patients with bilateral disease increased with age and accounted for nearly 50% of those aged 80 years or over.