Diabetes and Eyes

28/04/2025

Did you know that Type 2 Diabetes affects 16.3 % of the population in UAE? Did you know that 10% of Type 2 Diabetes patients in UAE do not know that they have the disease?

Diabetes mellitus is a systemic metabolic disorder that causes vascular complications in various organs of the body. In the eye, it may affect the retina, which is a nerve tissue lining the back of the eye thus causing diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes that results from progressive damage to the retinal blood vessels; it can cause significant visual loss and at times it could lead to blindness if left untreated.

Factors affecting the progression of diabetic retinopathy:

• Duration of diabetes
• High blood glucose levels
• Increased blood pressure

Self-care and awareness:

• A patient diagnosed with diabetes needs to take care of his weight, diet and follow the guidelines set by the endocrinologist.
• Generally, diabetic retinopathy has no early warning signs although visual loss could occur in later stages. It can be progressive and slow caused by the accumulation of fluid in the central retina (macula) causing what we refer to as Diabetic Macular Edema. At times, visual loss could be sudden following an acute intraocular hemorrhage with an alarming appearance of spots that can partially or completely obscure vision. However, at times, visual symptoms could be absent even in cases with advanced diabetic retinopathy.
• Early detection and timely treatment ostensibly improve the visual prognosis of the patient and can prevent the progression of the disease. For this matter, we periodically perform retinal evaluations and if needed, imaging studies that help evaluate and monitor the disease

Treatments:

• In early stages, patients with diabetic retinopathy only need to have regular eye check-ups
• In cases where a patient has diabetic macular edema with visual loss, treatment might be needed. Nowadays, intraocular injection of medications is the main treatment modality, some selective cases might benefit from laser treatment as well
• Patients with ischemic areas of the retina (areas without blood supply) may be treated with laser to prevent progression of retinopathy to more severe forms
• In advanced cases, with intraocular hemorrhage and/or retinal detachment, it may be necessary to resort to intraocular microsurgery techniques (vitrectomy), which we usually perform under local anesthesia.

Dr. Wissam Charafeddin

Medical Retina Consultant