What is it?

Diabetic retinopathy stems from diabetes, causing a vast number of problems to diabetes patients. Those suffering from diabetes can experience kidney, heart and eye problems. This disease targets the eye's retina. Blood clotting and retinal detachments are common effects from this disease.

What causes it?

Diabetes patients usually suffer from some type of eye problem. The longer you've had diabetes, the more likely you are to get some form of diabetic retinopathy. Two types of this disease exist: nonproliferative and proliferative. The first, nonproliferative, affects the size of the blood vessels and can lead to hemorrhaging. It is usually not too serious, but harmful conditions may also develop. The proliferative type forms from the retina not receiving enough blood. New, weak blood vessels form and often break, resulting in altered vision.

Symptoms

Treatment

The golden rule when it comes to treating this disease is to keep blood sugar levels where they need to be through insulin, medicine and maintaining a balanced diet. Laser treatment is a possibility but has side effects such as vision loss, bleeding and scarring. In addition, laser treatment is only designed to stop the spread of the disease, not improve vision.

Index of Diseases