Diabetes

Retinal abnormalities associated with diabetes

In our country, it is the leading cause of blindness in the working-age population. However, blindness due to diabetes could be prevented. Since fundus abnormalities do not initially cause any complaints and do not impair vision, it is therefore recommended that all diabetics have an annual eye check-up (fundus examination performed with mydriasis)!

Inflammations affecting the ocular surface (styes, conjunctivitis) occur more frequently in diabetic patients. Diabetes is a predisposing factor for primary open-angle glaucoma (glaucoma simplex), and in more severe cases, secondary glaucoma may also develop due to neovascularization.

Long-term elevated or poorly regulated blood sugar levels lead to the blockage of some of the small blood vessels supplying various parts of the eye or to changes in the structure of the blood vessel wall.

Characteristic changes in the fundus of the eye indicate the onset of retinal damage, long before the first visual complaints. If the walls of the blood vessels of the macula lutea begin to leak, the resulting retinal edema (diabetic macular edema, DME) causes deterioration of vision and, in the long term, the destruction of visual cells and permanent loss of vision.

The occlusion of the peripheral retinal vessels leads to a lack of oxygen, which the body tries to compensate by forming new blood vessels (neovascularization). Unfortunately, the newly formed blood vessels have an abnormal structure, their walls easily rupture, causing vitreous hemorrhages that break into the inside of the eye. After a while, the abnormal blood vessels, which are transformed into connective tissue, begin to shrink and can cause retinal detachment (proliferative retinopathy, traction retinal detachment).

If necessary, we perform laser treatment to reduce diabetic retinopathy and macular edema. The most effective method for treating macular edema is currently an injection treatment (so-called anti-VEGF treatment) administered inside the eye, which results in a reduction of edema and an improvement in visual acuity.