Rating

	My Rating: 1 ratings 5 stars (1) 4 stars (0) 3 stars (0) 2 stars (0) 1 stars (0)

Email

	Email this page to a friend Friend's Email: Your Name: Your Email: Enter the code shown: Submitting Send Email

Don’t lose sight of diabetes-related vision concerns

What is diabetic eye disease?

It is a group of eye problems that people with diabetes may get. All of these eye problems can lead to vision loss or blindness. Here are some of these eye problems:

• Diabetic retinopathy — Causes harm to the blood vessels in the retina. The retina is the layer of tissue in the back of the eye that is sensitive to light.

• Cataract — Causes your eye lens to get cloudy.

• Glaucoma — Causes damage to the optic nerve that can lead to vision loss.

Who is most likely to get diabetic eye disease?

Anyone with diabetes can get this disease. The longer someone has diabetes, the more likely they are to get diabetic eye disease.

Which diabetic eye disease do most people get?

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness in people with diabetes. This disease happens when blood vessels in the retina get weak and leak fluid. It also happens when new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina. As the new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina, they can bleed into the eye and block vision.

What are the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy?

In the early stages of the disease, many times there are no symptoms or pain. As some blood vessels get weak and leak fluid or bleed, vision may start to blur.

How do you know if you have it? 

An eye care professional can tell if you have diabetic retinopathy by giving you a comprehensive dilated eye exam. During the exam, drops are placed in your eyes to widen, or dilate, the pupils. Then a special lens is used to look at the retina for damage to blood vessels. After the exam, your vision may be blurry for a period of hours.

How is diabetic retinopathy treated?

Laser eye surgery can close or shrink the new abnormal blood vessels that can leak blood into the eye and cause vision loss. It can also slow or stop the fluid leakage from retina vessels that can cause vision loss. Newer treatments include injections of drugs into the eye to prevent this leakage and this often leads to improved vision.

Can it be prevented? 

People with diabetes can dramatically slow or prevent the development of this eye disease by keeping their blood sugar, blood pressure and blood cholesterol under control and having regular eye exams to check on the eye disease. Tracking your blood glucose levels, in a notebook or with a smartphone app like Sugar Sense, available for Android and Apple iOS, can help make diabetes management easier. 

Published February 16, 2015.  

Source: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, 2012.