Laser Eye Surgery? Can It Help?

  My father-in-law has only been to the doctor about 5 or 6 time in his entire life?
  He recently becam ill and had to go.  He found out that he was diabetic and was
  place on medication.  Since then and it may have been giving him trouble before and
  he may have not told anyone, he has been having vision problems.
  At our insistence he had an eye exam.  We thought he needed glasses.
  He is 67 and that is not unreasonable at his age.  The doctor did a thorough exam and
  told us that glasses would not help.  She said he has blood and fluid leakage behind his
  eyes, swelling and some type of retina problem along
  with cataracts on both eyes.  He is to have laser surgery on Monday
  and is terribly frightened.  He has never had surgery before.
  What exactly is the problem, I got all my info second hand and would
  like you opinion based on my description.  What can we expect?  What about the length of recovery time?
  Will he need glasses afterwards?  There are many things
  that I would like to know but hate to take up your valuable time.
  If there is any advice that you can give me sto that I may set his
  mind to rest, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank You, Cathy
_________
You are describing a situation that unfortunately is not uncommon.  Diabetics should have annual dilated eye examinations, and more frequently once they develop diabetic related eye problems.
You are describing a condition called diabetic retinopathy.  Diabetes affects the competency of the small blood vessels.  When these vessels are damaged they leak fluid and sometimes blood.  The eye, kidneys, and nervous system obtain their blood supply from these small blood vessels and this is why these organ systems are the  ones most likely to suffer damage from diabetes.  In his case, the blood vessels inside the eye have leaked fluid into the central retina and this will not allow proper processing of the visual signals from the retina to the brain.  This treatment usually keeps the vision from getting worse but it usually does not improve the vision itself.  The vision may deteriorate despite the laser treatment.  The cataracts on the otherhand may allow better vision if they are removed, however, they should only be removed if they are moderately dense because patients with diabetes do not usually do quite as well as those without diabetes.
Laser surgery on the eye is not usually an unpleasant experience.  The pain is usually minimal for most diabetic laser treatments.  They are usually short and there are few to no restrictions following the treatment.
Good luck.
Sincerely,
HFHS M.D.-JL
*Keywords:  diabetic retinopathy, laser treatments