12:14pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Clare Kennedy
A HAMPSHIRE eye expert has saved the sight of two patients thanks to a pioneering treatment that could offer hope to thousands of people worldwide.
Professor Andrew Lotery used groundbreaking medication on a condition that, if left untreated, can lead to blindness.
He gave the patients, who are both in their 30s, a drug called Avastin to treat a rare genetic eye condition that initially causes blurred vision but ends in blindness.
His findings are due to be published in an influential medical journal.
Until now the outlook for patients with the disease – known as Sorsby’s Fundus Dystrophy (SFD) – has been grim.
Conventional treatments, such as laser therapy, make little difference with patients typically losing their central vision in their 40s and 50s before going blind.
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