Diseases / Diabetic retinopathy

Good News and Bad News about Diabetic Retinopathy

The good news about diabetic retinopathy is that treatment may not be necessary. Even when it is, vision loss can usually be prevented or impaired vision improved. Good control of your diabetes with intensive management and control of your blood sugar will delay, and possibly prevent, both the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy.

The early form of diabetic retinopathy is called nonproliferative or background retinopathy. You may not notice any change in your vision when you develop this early form of the disease, but it can lead to other more serious forms of retinopathy that affect your vision. A more serious form of this condition is proliferative retinopathy, when new, fragile blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina. These new blood vessels are called neovascularization, and can lead to serious vision problems, because the new vessels can break and bleed into the vitreous. (The vitreous is the clear, jelly-like substance that fills the center of the eye.) When the vitreous becomes clouded with blood, light is prevented from passing through the eye to the retina. This can blur or distort vision. The new blood vessels can also cause scar tissue to develop, which can pull the retina away from the back of the eye. This is known as retinal detachment, and can lead to blindness if untreated. In addition, abnormal blood vessels can grow on the iris (the colored part in the front of your eye, which can lead to glaucoma. Because diabetic retinopathy often causes no symptoms even in advanced cases it is extremely important to have a yearly dilated eye exam by an ophthalmologist. Diabetic retinopathy can be treated, and vision loss prevented if it is caught early enough. Judith Lee