Posted by Mark B on July 19, 2000 at 01:43:10:

I am 42 year old male westerner currently living in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan in the former Soviet Union.

I was diagnosed with Drusen in one eye 18 months ago and told there was no treatment other than regular check ups and maybe taking vitamins and eating green vegetables which may help slow the progress. A follow up check 12 months later revealed no change.

I recently visited an extremely modern eye clinic here in Kyrgyzstan. The equipment has to be seen to be believed and for anyone living here it is like this place has been transplanted from another planet.

Anyways they gave me a series of eyetests with these very modern machines and noticed the drusen. When questioned whether I had commenced treatment in my home country they were very surprised that the answer was there is no treatment.
They have presribed the following: a course of 10 injections over 10 days of EACH of the following:
Vitamin B1 injected into the muscle
Vinpocetine injected into the muscle
Emoxipinum injected under the eye (not the eyeball itself but as close as possible)
The latter of course sounds scary. The doctors here (Russian or Soviet trained - the guy that runs the clinic, a professor did his doctorate on AMD) tell me that emoxipinum is a "vitamin" for the retina intended to "improve blood flow and the metabolism" of the retina. Apparently it is quite a common treatment in the former USSR to "stabilise" MD.
They have also prescribed Nicotine Acid tablets for 1 month following this course of injections.
I have been able to find info on the net for vinpocetine and I think Nicotine Acid is the local name for another B Vitamin but I have only found one reference to emoxipin or emoxipinum and that was in Russian. With the help of my translator it appears that this drug is an antioxidant developed in Russia and is often used for eye problems.
I am still too nervous to take the course (particularly the eye injection). I suspect my opthamologist at home would think I was crazy having any treatment in this country. My other question is if it works/helps why isn't available in the west?
Has anyone out there ever heard of this treatment?