What is diabetic eye disease?
If you have diabetes mellitus, your body does not use and store sugar properly. Fluctuations in your blood sugar levels can damage your eyes, although you may not notice it at first.

Approximately 16 million Americans have diabetes; 5 million are at risk for vision loss because they don't know they have the disease. Each year, 12,000 to 24,000 individuals lose their sight due to diabetes.

Diabetic eye disease, a group of disorders that affects those with diabetes, includes diabetic retinopathy, cataracts  and glaucoma.  The most common is diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of new cases of blindness among working-age people in the United States. If you have diabetes, you are likely to get cataracts at a younger age, and your chances of developing glaucoma are doubled.

What causes diabetic retinopathy?
In people with diabetes, high blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels in the retina, the nerve layer at the back of the eye that senses light and helps to send images to the brain. The damage to retinal vessels is called diabetic retinopathy. The longer you have diabetes, the greater your chance of developing this eye disease.

How do I know if I have it?
Because there are often no symptoms in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, your vision may not be affected until the disease becomes severe. That's why, once diagnosed with diabetes, you should schedule a comprehensive dilated eye evaluation with your eye doctor at least once a year. Your eye doctor will recommend more frequent examinations if abnormalities are detected.

Women with diabetes also should be examined if considering pregnancy, early in the first trimester, and every one to three months during pregnancy, because diabetic retinopathy can progress much more rapidly during pregnancy.

Recent studies show that intensive control of diabetes with self-monitoring of blood sugar levels and multiple daily insulin injections or an insulin pump can significantly slow the development of diabetic retinopathy and other complications from diabetes. As always, early diagnosis of diabetes and the effective control of blood sugar levels and hypertension through diet and exercise can help control eye diseases associated with diabetes.

How is diabetic retinopathy treated?
The current primary treatment option for diabetic retinopathy is laser photocoagulation. With the "pan retinal" laser, the eye doctor makes tiny burns on the retina surface, removing damaged retinal tissue. This helps to stop or prevent growth of abnormal blood vessels that cause vitreous hemorrhage and retinal detachment. The "focal" laser helps to close leaking blood vessels, which lead to macular edema. When performed promptly, laser photocoagulation helps reduce the risk of severe vision loss by up to 90 percent.

Consult an Eye Care Associates doctor
If you or a loved one have diabetes, regular eye exams are critical to preserving sight. To learn more, make an appointment with an experienced eye doctor at Eye Care Associates of Greater Cincinnati.