Overview
Diabetes can cause various long term complications and diabetic eye disease is one of them. Eye diseases caused by diabetes include diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, cataract, and glaucoma. Diabetes affects the eyes due to the high levels of blood sugar levels. This leads to destruction of the blood vessels in the eyes. There is the formation of new and weak blood vessels in the retina that ruptures and leaks easily leading to accumulation of the blood in the macular, called macular edema. Long-standing macular edema leads to macular degeneration. Macular is a light-sensitive area in the retina responsible for vision. Hence, the damage leads to visual problems and irreversible blindness if not treated. Eye diseases caused by diabetes can be diagnosed by fundoscopic examination, visual field test, visual acuity, color blindness test and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Eye diseases can be treated with injectable drugs, laser photocoagulation, vitrectomy, or lens surgery.
