blindness caused by diabetes.

[hosni]

my aunt lost her vision because of diabetes. she lives in tunisia, north africa. she wonders if there is any thing that can be done to help her regain her vision.

[JDRF-Team-SS]

Hello,



Sorry for the delayed response.

I am a volunteer, not a medical professional.  My son was dxd at age 3.  he is now 10-1/2.



I honestly do not know much about diabetic retinopathy, but I did some searching.



Please copy & paste the link below into your browser.



http://www.hmc.psu.edu/healthinfo/d/retinopathy.htm



Take care,

SS

[J J's mom]

I have heard many times now, that diabetic retinopathy can be reversed to some extent by bringing BG levels into the normal range over a period of time.

[Imediject]

I'm not sure Retinopathy can be reversed once the damage is done, but it's believed it can be prevented by good control.  'Nonproliferative retinopathy' is when it's in it's beginning stages and if diagnosed early, treatment might be able to stop the progression.  'Proliferative retinopathy' is when damage has already happened, but it can often times be brought under control with Laser treatments.  The doctors at Johns Hopkins have done so much research on this subject.  They believe that genetics plays a part in who will develop Diabetic Retinopathy.  They've also seen that children rarely develop the problem until after they go through puberty.  Apparently the hormones play a part in this as well.  One other thing to add - there's a surgical procedure called a "vitrectomy" that has returned sight to many that have lost vision through excess bleeding into the gel in the back of the eye because of Diabetic Retinopathy.  The surgery removed the gel/blood, and replaces it with sterile fluid. Hope this helps. :-)