A diabetes doctor draws attention to the importance of periodic controls to avoid a serious complication of diabetes. “Patients risk losing their vision,” says the doctor.
An ophthalmological exam once a year is absolutely necessary for photo diabetics: Pixabay
Multiple complications of diabetes (which is a complex disease) include diabetic retinopathy, a disease that “does not hurt and does not give symptoms in the beginning”, warns the specialized diabetes and nutrition diseases Anca Roman. As serious as the situation can be, so far the patient is careful not to get to that stage. How’s this doing? Through periodic checks.
“It is primordial to insist on screening, because yesterday we had two cases of new-diagnosed type 2 diabetes, already in the complication stage of retinopathy, in a proliferative stage, with hemorrhage. Patients risk losing their vision, which is why I insist a lot on carrying out the annual eye bottom, as well as for the screening of the other complications ”, It is the call of Dr. Roman, launched on his Facebook page.
The annual control is done at the ophthalmologist, this control, together with the bottom of the eye, being essential, says Dr. Roman, to prevent loss of vision.
Diabetic retinopathy does not give symptoms in the early stage. When it has reached the stage of mild non-proliferative retinopathy, micro-annevisms and small bleeding appear. At this stage the treatment that is required involves strict blood sugar control, tension control and lipid, monitoring being required to be done periodically.
When it has reached the mode of moderate non-proliferative retinopathy, several bleeding and exudate already appear, explains the doctor, requiring the same treatment, but with an even more careful monitoring (more frequent checks).
In the stage of severe non-proliferative retinopathy the blood vessels are severely affected, and the retina receives less oxygen. At this stage the patient should be followed carefully and can be recommended preventive laser.
In the stage of proliferative retinopathy, new fragile vessels are formed, which can bleed, with a risk of blindness. Already at this point interventions such as laser photocoagulation, intraocular anti-vegetable injections, vitreo-retinal surgery are required.
Diabetic macular edema can occur at any stage, and this assumes that the retina is swelling in the central area, lowering the vision. For macular edema diabetes, treatment involves intraocular injections anti-vegf, corticosteroids and focal laser.
Managing diabetes, the best way to reduce the risk
Diabetic patients need to perform a complete ophthalmological check at least once a year, the National Eye Institute (NIH) specialists also mention, because this eye condition may not give any sign at first, instead it can help them have measures to protect their vision.
The management of diabetes is the main measure to adopt, and this can be done by maintaining physical activity, healthy eating and administration of prescribed drugs.
Although diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision loss in people with diabetes, it is not the only eye condition that can be developed.
There is a high risk of cataracts, diabetes increasing the probability of developing this condition two to five times and also increasing the risk of cataract at a younger age. Another risk is open -angle glaucoma, diabetes almost doubling this risk.
It is worth mentioning that the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy exists in any type of diabetes (type 1, type 2, gestational diabetes) and this risk increases the earlier diabetes. Over half of the diabetics will develop diabetic retinopathy, the researchers’ data shows.
