AIM: To document the prognosis of laser treatment in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: Efficacy of the intervention was evaluated using a before-after method. RESULTS: A total of 392 eyes of 341 patients with exudative AMD were examined. 77.6% had choroideal neovascularisation (CNV). Before the use of indocyanine green (ICG) angiography, occult CNV was detected in only 1.8% of the eyes, but after the use of ICG angiography, this increased to 19.5% (P<0.001). Of the 349 eyes which were followed up, visual acuity had remained stable in 68.2%. There was a statistically significant relationship between the localization of lesion and visual acuity changes on pre- and post-laser treatment (P<0.001). Also there was a statistically significant relationship between the localization of lesion and recurrence (P<0.05). The recurrence was less in subfoveal lesions than that in juxtafoveal and extrafoveal lesions. CONCLUSION: ICG angiography is highly important in the treatment of occult CNV.