Diabetes is an extremely common disease in the United States. As you may know, having diabetes makes you susceptible to many secondary issues, one being diabetic eye disease.
Diabetic eye disease is one of the most common causes of blindness in the United States. Regular eye examinations are important for people with diabetes because diabetic eye disease and the vision loss caused by it are completely preventable.
Diabetic eye disease refers to a group of diseases brought on by uncontrolled or prolonged diabetes. In people with uncontrolled diabetes, high blood glucose levels damage blood vessels throughout the entire body. Damage to blood vessels in the kidneys can cause kidney failure requiring dialysis. Damage to blood vessels in nerves can cause neuropathy. Your eye also has many blood vessels in it, and diabetes can damage those blood vessels too. In particular, high blood glucose levels cause damage to the blood vessels in the retina of the eye.
Because diabetic retinopathy presents no symptoms until vision loss occurs it is important to regularly get your eyes examined by your ophthalmologist. Here at Family Eye Physicians, we recommend that diabetic patients come in to see us once per year. Early diagnosis and treatment is key to saving your vision.
There are multiple ways diabetic retinopathy can be treated. Which treatment you receive depends greatly on the stage and severity of diabetic retinopathy and which treatments you respond best to. Our retina experts here at Family Eye Physicians are here to help diagnose and provide the perfect treatment plan for you.
Sometimes, especially in the early stages, monitoring and controlling your blood glucose levels properly is enough. If not, we offer the following treatments for diabetic retinopathy.
If you are diabetic, remember that routine eye examinations are key to preventing diabetes-related vision loss. Contact Family Eye Physicians in Chicago to schedule your eye examination today!
Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that causes the tiny blood vessels located in the retina to swell, leak and grow rapidly. This condition is the most common type of diabetic eye disease and is responsible for millions of cases of blindness. Diabetic retinopathy is progressive and gets worse over time without treatment.
The retina lines the back of your eye like wallpaper, acting like the film in a camera. It detects the light entering your eye and turns it into pictures for your brain to process and turn into images. When the retina’s blood vessels are damaged, the retina stops working properly. This can cause vision loss.
There are four stages of diabetic retinopathy:
After being exposed to high blood glucose levels for a long time, the blood vessels in the retina develop some weak spots along the blood vessels, which are called microaneurysms. Sometimes the microaneurysms rupture, and blood spills into the retina to form small hemorrhages. Your retina will eventually clear the blood away, but some debris is often left behind called exudates. This is the beginning of diabetic retinopathy. Most people with diabetes get these small changes in their eyes after having diabetes for 7 years or more.
If enough of the blood vessels rupture, the retina may not receive enough blood to keep it healthy. In this case, the retina will try to grow new blood vessels to replace the sick ones. Unfortunately, these new blood vessels are usually weak and leak easily. When these new blood vessels begin to grow, it is called proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is less common than the beginning stages of diabetic retinopathy but is much more likely to take away some or all of your vision. If it is caught early, before your vision is damaged, proliferative diabetic retinopathy can be treated with laser therapy to save your vision. Once the vision is lost, it is very hard to get it back. Early proliferative diabetic retinopathy has no symptoms until vision loss occurs.
Family Eye Physicians is one of the premier chicagoland ophthalmology practices dedicated to offering superior eye care services to protect and improve the vision quality of our patients. We strive to provide this by utilizing the most clinically relevant procedures and state of the art technology. more.
