Diabetes is a major cause of blindness. Diabetes damages the retinal blood vessels resulting in poor blood supply to the retina. This results in poor vision and may lead to growth of new, abnormal blood vessels in the retina. The latter then result in recurrent bleeding episodes and retinal detachment. Diabetes may also result in abnormal leakage of the blood constituents through the walls of the retina blood vessels resulting in retinal swelling which causes decreased vision. These changes are collectively called as diabetic retinopathy. Besides diabetic retinopathy, diabetic patients are more prone to develop cataract and glaucoma.
Normal vision is not a guarantee that you do not have potentially blinding eye damage if you are a diabetic patient. By the time patients notice changes in their vision, the disease is so advanced it is almost always impossible to recover normal vision even after treatment.
The treatment of advanced diabetic retinopathy is very complex and extremely expensive with very little satisfying outcome. For good out come early diagnosis and treatment is crucial.
At our clinic you can have your eye examined by a retina specialist with many years of experience in the management of diabetic eye diseases.
