Diabetic retinopathy is caused by the blood vessels that go to the retina leaking. It is a complication of having diabetes and it costs many people their eyesight. This is especially sad because it is estimated that in ninety percent of those cases had the condition been spotted earlier the sight wouldn’t have been lost. Part of the problem is that often there are no diabetic retinopathy signs or symptoms to warn that there might be a problem.
One of the reasons that so many people lose their vision to diabetes is that in most cases there are no diabetic retinopathy signs and symptoms in the early stages. Even in the later stages there might not be any symptoms. It is important that you realize that if you have diabetes you are very likely to get the disease and there may not be any signs. About eighty percent of people with diabetes will also get diabetic retinopathy. There is no cure but it can be managed if you catch it early enough.
Given that there are no diabetic retinopathy signs and symptoms in the early stages it is important that if you have diabetes that you get your eyes checked every year. Your eye doctor will do what is called a dilated eye exam. This involves using special eye drops so that your eyes will dilate. That allows the doctor to be able to see your retinas. If he sees any diabetic retinopathy signs and symptoms he will perform additional tests to make sure. This early screening can help to make sure that you are able to start taking care of it before it starts to affect your vision.
If your eye doctor detects any early diabetic retinopathy signs and symptoms you will then need to start managing the condition. This is done mainly be keeping your diabetes under control. If you can keep your blood glucose and blood pressure under control there is a good chance that the diabetic retinopathy will not progress to the next stage. Normally your diabetes will be controlled by a combination of diet exercise and medication. You will need to talk to your doctor to come up with a plan to control your diabetes and your diabetic retinopathy.
If you don’t get regular eye exams the first diabetic retinopathy signs and symptoms that you are likely to see are floaters in your vision. These are the result of the blood vessels to your retina starting to leak. The blood gets into the fluid in your eye and it starts to interfere with your vision. At this point your vision has already been damaged which is why you don’t want to wait this long. You will need laser eye surgery to shrink the blood vessels and keep them from leaking. You will also need another surgery called a vitrectomy to remove the blood from your eye. Even then there will be some loss of vision, mainly your peripheral vision but your central vision might also be damaged if you wait too long.