Diabetic eye disease refers to a group of eye problems that people with diabetes may have as a complication of the disease. They include diabetic retinopathy, cataracts and glaucoma. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common eye disease associated with diabetes and it’s the leading cause of blindness in American adults.
Who gets diabetic retinopathy? Anyone who has diabetes. The longer you have diabetes, the more likely you’ll get it. The National Eye Institute estimates that as many as 24,000 people with diabetes lose their vision every year.
How can it be prevented? Retinopathy can be slowed or even halted by visiting your eye doctor. You should have an annual dilated eye exam, no matter how short a time you have had diabetes. Tight control of blood glucose has a tremendous impact on preventing this disease. In 1993 the federal study, Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, revealed that tight control reduced the risk of developing retinopathy by a whopping 76 percent.
What are the symptoms of retinopathy? At first, there may be no symptoms or signs. An annual eye exam is the best way to catch it in its early stages. A doctor can detect the blood vessel changes in the eye that signal the presence of retinopathy. Blurred vision may occur when the macula—the part of the retina that provides sharp, central vision—swells from fluid leaking from vessels.
What is the treatment? Your eye care professional may suggest laser surgery in which a strong light beam is aimed onto the retina to shrink the abnormal vessels. Laser surgery has been proven to reduce the risk of severe vision loss from this type of diabetic retinopathy by 60 percent. However, laser surgery often cannot restore vision. That is why finding diabetic retinopathy early is the best way to prevent vision loss.
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