Internal bleeding in eye

My mother, who is 82 years old has diminishing vision in her remaining eye. This began a couple of months ago and the doctor says she has hyphema or hemorrhage in this eye. She does not have diabetes, but tests show she has high cholesterol levels and blood pressure. The doctor is prescribing a course of injections that run into thousands of dollars. Please advise if the treatment is genuinely this costly, if not, I will seek another doctor to treat her.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

You need to call and get some more information. I doubt she has a hyphema which is blood in the anterior chamber of the eye. More likely she has "wet" or exudative macular degeneration. If so the injections are important.

ASK IF THE RETINA DOCTOR WILL USE AVASTIN INSTEAD OF LUCENTIS. AVASTIN COSTS ABOUT $100/INJECTION AND LUCENTIS COSTS OVER $2000 BUT THEY ARE EQUALLY EFFECTIVE.

jch md