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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Photodynamic therapy has become a treatment modality for exudative age-related macular degeneration with classic subfoveal neovascularization, one of the most frequent causes of visual loss to and beyond the level of legal blindness in Western countries.

As shown by Schmidt-Erfurth and colleagues,¹ a major problem with photodynamic therapy is the necessity to re-treat many patients for the recurrence of subretinal neovascularization. However, it may not be advisable to increase laser energy to permanently destroy subretinal neovascularization during the first treatment session because of the negative phototoxic and photothermic effects on the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Because of the active perfusion of the subretinal neovascular membrane during laser coagulation, some of the laser energy needed for coagulation of the vessel is transported away from its required site of action. The question arises whether the efficiency of photodynamic therapy might be increased by reducing or even halting the bloodstream in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]