Diabetic retinopathy complications -
With type 1 diabetes , your body doesn't make insulin. With type 2 diabetes , your body doesn't make or use insulin well. Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in your blood and causes high blood sugar levels.
Over time, high blood sugar may damage the blood vessels and lenses in your eyes. This can lead to serious diabetic eye problems which can harm your vision and sometimes cause blindness. Some common diabetes eye problems include:.
Anyone with diabetes can develop diabetic eye disease. But your risk of developing it is higher if you:. In the early stages, diabetic eye problems usually don't have any symptoms. That's why regular dilated eye exams are so important, even if you think your eyes are healthy.
You should also watch for sudden changes in your vision that could mean an emergency. Call your doctor right away if you notice any of these symptoms:.
Eye doctors do dilated eye exams to diagnose eye problems. A dilated eye exam uses eye drops to open your pupils wide so your doctor can look for signs of eye problems and treat them before they harm your vision.
Your doctor will also test your vision and measure the pressure in your eyes. Treatment for diabetic eye problems depends on the problem and how serious it is. Some of the treatments include:. But these treatments aren't cures. Eye problems can come back.
That's why your best defense against serious vision loss is to take control of your diabetes and get regular eye exams.
It's also important to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in a healthy range. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice.
Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. Diabetic Eye Problems Also called: Diabetic retinopathy. On this page Basics Summary Start Here Symptoms Diagnosis and Tests Prevention and Risk Factors.
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What is diabetes? What eye problems can diabetes cause? Some common diabetes eye problems include: Diabetic retinopathy , which is the leading cause of blindness in American adults. It affects blood vessels in the retina the light-sensitive layer of tissue in the back of your eye.
The blood vessels may swell and leak fluid into your eye. If it's not treated, it can cause serious problems such as vision loss and retinal detachment , where the retina is pulled away from its normal position at the back of your eye. Diabetic macular edema DME , which happens when blood vessels in the retina leak fluid into the macula a part of the retina needed for sharp, central vision.
This usually develops in people who already have other signs of diabetic retinopathy. Glaucoma , a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve the bundle of nerves that connects the eye to the brain.
Glaucoma from diabetes happens when the blood vessels in the front of your eye are damaged, and new blood vessels grow near the iris the colored part of your eye. The blood vessels block the space where fluid drains from your eye.
This causes fluid to build up and pressure to increase inside your eye. Cataract , which happen when the clear lens in the front of your eye becomes cloudy.
Managing your diabetes—by staying physically active, eating healthy and taking your medicine—can also help you prevent or delay vision loss. Your ophthalmologist eye doctor will first check for any changes to your glasses or contact lens prescription.
People with many diabetes related problems with their vision can still wear contact lenses. The doctor will then dilate your pupils and examine the retina. The drops used may sting for a short time.
About 20 to 30 minutes later, your eyes will be fully dilated. With the use of special lenses and lights, the doctor will visually examine your retina. To detect retinopathy, the doctor looks at all the retinal tissues. For signs of macular edema, the doctor looks at the macula in the back of your eye, but this may not be enough for a diagnosis.
Your doctor may perform an optical coherence tomography, which is a laser exam of the back of the eye. While the retina is very thin, the test can measure retinal thickening as small as a thousandth of a millimeter.
A fluorescein angiogram is a test that can detect diabetic retinopathy. During the test, a dye is injected into your arm.
Within 45 seconds, the dye reaches the back of the eye. Just like how blood leaks from weak blood vessels, so does the dye. Special photographs help document the results. If you have diabetes and visit your doctor for blurred vision, you can expect to have some or all of these tests.
Your doctor will also check for cataracts clouding of the lenses in the eye and glaucoma high pressure in the eye , which are more common in people with diabetes. Glaucoma can develop when abnormal blood vessels grow in the iris, the colored part of the eye, due to proliferative retinopathy.
If your diabetic retinopathy is moderate and stable, treatment may not be necessary right away. The treatments for macular edema and proliferative retinopathy can prevent vision loss and even restore some of your lost vision.
They include:. Scientists are studying better ways to find, treat and prevent vision loss in people with diabetes. But if you keep your blood sugar at your target levels, you may delay or even prevent it.
These new tests and treatments will help address problems early. Breadcrumb Home You Can Manage and Thrive with Diabetes Eye Health Vision Loss and Diabetes. Eye Health.
Optimizing post-workout recovery retinopathy is a complicatuons sight-threatening complication of Ckmplications. Diabetes interferes compllications the body's Diabetic retinopathy complications to use and store sugar glucose. The disease is characterized by Diabetuc much sugar in the blood, which can cause damage throughout the body, including the eyes. Over time, diabetes damages small blood vessels throughout the body, including the retina. Diabetic retinopathy occurs when these tiny blood vessels leak blood and other fluids. This causes the retinal tissue to swell, resulting in cloudy or blurred vision. Diabetic retinopathy usually affects both eyes. Retlnopathy websites use. gov Diabetic retinopathy complications. gov website belongs to an rftinopathy Diabetic retinopathy complications organization in High-performance pre-workout United States. gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Diabetes is a disease in which your blood glucose, or blood sugarlevels are too high. Glucose comes from foods you eat.Diabetic retinopathy complications -
Diabetic retinopathy is caused by high blood sugar due to diabetes. Over time, having too much sugar in your blood can damage your retina — the part of your eye that detects light and sends signals to your brain through a nerve in the back of your eye optic nerve.
Diabetes damages blood vessels all over the body. The damage to your eyes starts when sugar blocks the tiny blood vessels that go to your retina, causing them to leak fluid or bleed.
These new blood vessels can leak or bleed easily. Eye doctors can check for diabetic retinopathy as part of a dilated eye exam.
The exam is simple and painless — your doctor will give you some eye drops to dilate widen your pupil and then check your eyes for diabetic retinopathy and other eye problems. If you do develop diabetic retinopathy, early treatment can stop the damage and prevent blindness.
If your eye doctor thinks you may have severe diabetic retinopathy or DME, they may do a test called a fluorescein angiogram. This test lets the doctor see pictures of the blood vessels in your retina.
Managing your diabetes is the best way to lower your risk of diabetic retinopathy. That means keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range. This test shows your average blood sugar level over the past 3 months. You can work with your doctor to set a personal A1C goal.
Meeting your A1C goal can help prevent or manage diabetic retinopathy. Having high blood pressure or high cholesterol along with diabetes increases your risk for diabetic retinopathy. So controlling your blood pressure and cholesterol can also help lower your risk for vision loss.
In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, your eye doctor will probably just keep track of how your eyes are doing. Some people with diabetic retinopathy may need a comprehensive dilated eye exam as often as every 2 to 4 months. Medicines called anti-VEGF drugs can slow down or reverse diabetic retinopathy.
Other medicines, called corticosteroids, can also help. Learn more about injections. Laser treatment. To reduce swelling in your retina, eye doctors can use lasers to make the blood vessels shrink and stop leaking.
Learn more about laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy. Eye surgery. If your retina is bleeding a lot or you have a lot of scars in your eye, your eye doctor may recommend a type of surgery called a vitrectomy. Learn more about vitrectomy. Scientists are studying better ways to find, treat, and prevent vision loss in people with diabetes.
One NIH-funded research team is studying whether a cholesterol medicine called fenofibrate can stop diabetic retinopathy from getting worse. Last updated: November 15, National Eye Institute Research Today… Vision Tomorrow. English Español. Search the site. Learn About Eye Health Healthy Vision Eye Conditions and Diseases Eye Health Data and Statistics Campaigns Vision Rehabilitation NEI for Kids Outreach Resources Grants and Training How to Apply Funding Opportunities Training at NEI Funding for Training and Career Development Policies and Procedures Prior Approval Requests Resources for Researchers Contact Grants and Funding Staff Research at NEI Clinical Trials Research Labs and Branches Jobs and Training Opportunities at NEI NEI Research Seminars About NEI Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at NEI Strategic Planning News and Events Goals and Accomplishments NEI History NEI Leadership Budget and Congress Advisory Committees National Eye Health Education Program Donate to NEI.
Home Learn About Eye Health Eye Conditions and Diseases Diabetic Retinopathy. Print this Page. Diabetic Retinopathy. On this page:.
At a glance: Diabetic Retinopathy Early Symptoms: None. Later Symptoms: Blurry vision, floating spots in your vision, blindness.
Diagnosis: Dilated eye exam. Treatment: Injections , laser treatment, surgery. What is diabetic retinopathy? Other types of diabetic eye disease Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision loss for people with diabetes.
But diabetes can also make you more likely to develop several other eye conditions: Cataracts. Having diabetes makes you 2 to 5 times more likely to develop cataracts.
This is an important step since eye damage may have no symptoms at first. And if you already have diabetes-related eye disease, advances in treatment can save your sight. The structure of the eye is like a camera. Light passes through the transparent front lenses, as if through the lenses of a camera, until it reaches the back wall of the eye.
This wall contains a very thin piece of light-sensitive tissue: the retina. The tiny blood vessels that nourish the retina can be damaged by diabetes.
The damage can cause the blood vessels to become leaky, like a water hose with holes in it. This is called non-proliferative retinopathy. Fluid leaks out of the blood vessels and into the retinal tissue which can cause vision problems.
This causes the retina to thicken, creating blurred vision. The swelling associated with diabetes in the macula, the central part of the eye responsible for staring straight ahead, called diabetic macular edema. In another process, blood vessels damaged by hyperglycemia high blood sugar, or high blood glucose close, and a series of events begin.
Starving retinal tissue produces growth causing new blood vessels to form on the surface of the retina. These new blood vessels are weak and can easily break and bleed.
This leads to scar tissue, which can build up on the back wall of the eye and stretch the retina, eventually separating it from the back of the eye. This condition is known as retinal detachment, and it can happen suddenly or slowly over time. Managing your diabetes—by staying physically active, eating healthy and taking your medicine—can also help you prevent or delay vision loss.
Your ophthalmologist eye doctor will first check for any changes to your glasses or contact lens prescription. People with many diabetes related problems with their vision can still wear contact lenses.
The doctor will then dilate your pupils and examine the retina. The drops used may sting for a short time. About 20 to 30 minutes later, your eyes will be fully dilated.
With the use of special lenses and lights, the doctor will visually examine your retina. To detect retinopathy, the doctor looks at all the retinal tissues. For signs of macular edema, the doctor looks at the macula in the back of your eye, but this may not be enough for a diagnosis.
Your doctor may perform an optical coherence tomography, which is a laser exam of the back of the eye. While the retina is very thin, the test can measure retinal thickening as small as a thousandth of a millimeter.
Diabetic retinopathy complications retinopathy is an eye condition that can cause vision loss and Diabetic retinopathy complications in Diabeitc who have diabetes. It retinoptahy blood vessels complicatios the retina the Diabetic retinopathy complications layer of tissue retniopathy the back of your eye. Diabetic retinopathy may not have any symptoms at first — but finding it early can help you take steps to protect your vision. Managing your diabetes — by staying physically active, eating healthy, and taking your medicine — can also help you prevent or delay vision loss. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision loss for people with diabetes.
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