Causes of vision loss

When diabetic retinopathy damages blood vessels, there are two ways a patient can lose vision:

• After blood vessels become blocked during the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, the eye begins producing new, but fragile, blood vessels. When these vessels break and leak, vision becomes blurry.
• When a patient develops macular edema—a leaking of fluid from blood vessels within the macula—the retina swells, blurring vision.

Patient types at risk

All diabetic patients are at some risk for diabetic retinopathy. According to the National Eye Institute, the disease already affects 40 to 45 percent of all people in the United States diagnosed with diabetes.

Protect patient vision

A patient with diabetic retinopathy should be monitored more closely, even though treatment is not needed during the first three of four disease stages—unless macular edema, caused by diabetic retinopathy, is present.

Diabetic Retinopathy facts:

• Proliferative retinopathy, the most advanced stage of diabetic retinopathy, can develop without symptoms
• At any of the four stages of diabetic retinopathy, macular edema can be present without symptoms
• Having both proliferative retinopathy and macular edema would substantially increase risk for vision loss, despite seemingly normal eyesight