The Elevate Experience
Diabetes can take your sight. Management protects it.
Diabetic retinopathy is a serious eye condition that affects people with diabetes. When left unmanaged, diabetic retinopathy can cause permanent vision loss and even blindness. Patients who have diabetes must be careful to control their blood sugar to avoid sometimes-irreversible damage to their sight. Fortunately, the talented doctors at Access Eye in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Stafford and King George, VA have the experience and knowledge to help their patients with diabetes preserve as much of their vision as possible.
What diabetic retinopathy does to the eyes.
When blood sugar spikes, this can harm the blood vessels located in the retina (the layer at the back of the eye that passes light to the optic nerve). Consequently, these vessels can inflate and seep blood, while also generating new and irregular vessels. Many patients who have diabetic retinopathy go on to develop other serious eye problems like macular edema, neovascular glaucoma and retinal detachment.
Treatment options for diabetic retinopathy.
In its earliest stages, diabetic retinopathy is often best treated with careful management of diabetes to stop or slow the progression. If diabetic retinopathy advances or becomes “proliferative,” then prompt treatment is necessary.
