Diabetic Retinopathy Stages And Treatment

By Cynthia Gibson


A big number of people around the world are affected by the dangerous disease that is diabetes. A person can live long with the disease if they learn of it at an early stage and decide to maintain sugar levels of their body where recommended by the doctor. They can end up dying on the other hand if they do not manage it properly. Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that develops from having the ailment.

This condition is caused by the damaging of the retinal part of human eye as a result of having diabetes. Blood vessels of the retina are usually affected by blood sugar levels being high. The resulting effects are the vessels swell and leak, and there may also be growth of fragile abnormal ones. All the above effects do lead to blindness when not vigilantly monitored.

This condition is characterized by two significant stages that are experienced by everyone who has the ailment diabetes in Bethesda, MD. Diabetic blindness starts slowly giving no signs to the sick one while at other points his or her vision may be affected mildly which after sometime cause total loss of sight. Someone who discovers this problem early and fights it immediately stands a better chance of retaining their vision and the best way to do so is have regular eye tests.

Non-proliferative stage is the name used to refer to the first degree. Here, one sees very little symptoms or none at all. Many people here have blurred vision or see distorted or darkened images. These images also do look different to the two eyes. Macular edema, which is the swelling of retina, caused by blood vessels leaking, happens here.

At the same non-proliferative level of the condition, an occurrence known as macular ischemia happens. This is where blood vessels are blocked thereby stopping flow into macula. Exudates, tiny particles sometimes are formed in the retina. To determine this first stage, specialists use a fundus photography process to see leakages and blockages in the blood vessels.

The second stage is the most advanced one commonly referred to as proliferative stage. This is characterized by growth of new abnormal blood vessels in the retinal part of the eye. The growth process is called neovascularization. They bleed into the vitreous causing a few dark floaters or excessively to block the entire vision. They also lead to formation of scar tissue that cause retina to detach.

A patient at this advanced level may lose his or her central vision as well as the side one. Doctors in Bethesda, MD use funduscopic exam just like in the first stage to view these characteristics. They then use three major ways of treatment after determining the level of damage done and the effectiveness of the ways are determined by how early the treatments were administered.

These treatment ways include use of laser surgery, injecting corticosteroids in the eye and vitrectomy. They are proven to be effective although not as a way of curing blindness caused by diabetes but managing the condition to avoid going blind completely. The most recommended way of going about it therefore is to greatly monitor the diabetes condition adhering to healthy living conditions so as to deal with the condition from the beginning.




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