What is involved in Valeda Photobiomodulation therapy?

Suitability assessment

Our starting point is a 90 minute suitability assessment. During which our team of experts will gather information about your diet, lifestyle, family health and conduct a thorough examination of your vision and eye health to ascertain whether or not photobiomodulation therapy is a good fit for you.

PBM works best in early to intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration, before geographic atrophy has set in. Accurately staging your disease is the most important step in deciding whether we should proceed with PBM treatment.

To do this will involve the following:

• Refraction and visual acuity testing
• Contrast sensitivity assessment
• Macular threshold visual field sensitivity testing
• Dilated retinal examination
• Ultra-widefield, ultra-high definition, true-colour retinal photography
• Fundus Auto-fluorescence
• Macular optical coherence tomography

The images are then assessed not only by our expert team but also using Altris AI. Altris AI is an advanced, AI-powered diagnostic software platform designed to assist eye care professionals in diagnosing retinal diseases. With its cutting-edge technology, Altris AI analyzes OCT scans, delivering fast, accurate insights to help streamline workflows and enhance patient care, ensuring more confident and precise diagnoses in real-time. The information gathered is then collated within our Zeiss Forum Retinal Workplace system to allow us to track changes in your macula over time

The Treatment Process

The Valeda Photobiomodulation (PBM) treatment process is quick, painless, and non-invasive. During each session, specific wavelengths of light—blue, red, and near-infrared—are applied directly to your eyes using the Valeda Light Delivery System. Each session lasts just 5 minutes per eye and is designed to stimulate retinal cells, increasing energy production and promoting cellular repair. Patients typically undergo a series of treatments which are are conducted in blocks of 9. Three treatments per week, on three consecutive weeks, repeated three time per year, with each session carefully calibrated to enhance visual function and slow the progression of early dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Valeda offers a safe, clinically proven option to preserve your vision.

For example a treatment block of 9 would consist of the following:

If block 1 was conducted in January, block 2 would be conducted in May and Block 3 would be conducted in September. A total of 27 treatments per year.

Follow-up Assessment

Before commencing with the next block of 9 treatments a 60 minute follow-up assessment will be conducted. This involves many of the same examination techniques as the initial suitability examination including:

• Refraction and visual acuity testing
• Contrast sensitivity assessment
• Macular threshold visual field sensitivity testing
• Dilated retinal examination
• Ultra-widefield, ultra-high definition, true-colour retinal photography
• Fundus Auto-fluorescence
• Macular optical coherence tomography

We can then use both Zeiss Forum Retinal Workplace and Altris AI to compare the retinal images and OCT’s for any change in the retina. We are hoping for no change or ideally an improvement in the retinal health and possibly an improvement in visual acuity.