Retinal drusen

harbingers of age, safe havens for trouble

Williams, M A
Craig, D
Passmore, P
Silvestri, G

¹Department of Geriatric Medicine, Whitla Medical Building, Queen's University of Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL, UK
²Centre for Vision Science, Royal Hospitals Trust, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, BT12 6BA, UK

Received 8 January 2009; accepted in revised form 21 May 2009

Address correspondence to: Michael Williams. Tel: (+44) 2890972153; Fax: (+44) 2890325839. Email: [email protected]

Age and Ageing 38(6):p 648-654, November 2009.

Drusen are small focal extracellular deposits underneath the retina, visible ophthalmoscopically as yellow dots. The more hard drusen there are, the greater the risk of developing soft drusen and retinal pigmentary changes, which in turn increase the risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration. Much remains to be discovered about drusen. For the patient with drusen, basic advice on diet and smoking and maintenance of a high level of vigilance for visual changes is appropriate management.