EYE DISORDERS: DIABETES MELLITUS AND VISION PROBLEMS

A diabetic who requires insulin is more prone to develop severe eye disease. It usually occurs in those who have suffered from diabetes for long periods (twenty or twenty-five years). You may find that your vision has gradually or suddenly decreased. Sometimes the blood vessels in the eye become weakened and bleed, or they expand abnormally and interfere with vision. You may notice a clouding and blurring that may suddenly become worse. This usually means a hemorrhage has occurred within your eye, or your retina has become detached as a complication of the eye disease.

How Is Diabetic Eye Disease Treated? Until recently, the results of treatment for diabetic eye disease were often disappointing and in some instances very dangerous. Some eye doctors now use a laser beam to prevent the small blood vessels from bleeding, thus perhaps slowing the disease and keeping it under control. This treatment usually does not cure the disease but it forestalls rapid deterioration and blindness. The better the diabetes is controlled, the less rapidly the eye problems will progress.

One major advance in the surgery for diabetic eye disease is an operation called a vitrectomy. The eye surgeon, using microsurgical techniques, cuts out and removes the extra blood vessels and blood clots that block vision. The operation has proven to be very successful for many older people and can often be done under local anesthetic. Vision often improves after this highly specialized surgery.

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