What is Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is a potentially blinding complication of diabetes that causes damage to the retina. Diabetes is a disease where there are high blood sugar levels, which can cause damage to blood vessels throughout your body. In the retina, diabetes can affect the tiny blood vessels that nourish it. When the vessels are damaged, they can leak serum, blood, and lipids into the retina, distorting vision. This eye disease will affect almost 80% of those who have had diabetes for at least 20 years and is the leading cause of blindness in individuals, aged 20–64.

Diabetic Retinopathy

Progressive damage to blood vessels causes them to break down and shut down, eventually leading to new abnormal blood vessel growth, called proliferative retinopathy. In its most advanced stage, proliferative retinopathy can lead to retinal scarring and ultimately, blindness.

Diabetic retinopathy progresses over time and ultimately leads to vision loss. In its early stages, patients do not notice symptoms. With routine, dilated, yearly, eye examinations and early treatment, 90% of those affected with advanced diabetic retinopathy can prevent vision loss.

Diabetic retinopathy can be treated with injection therapy and laser therapy.

Injection therapy may be indicated because swelling from diabetes has affected the center of your vision. Injections can be administered at Northeast Ohio Eye surgeons under local anesthesia. The frequency of required injections will be determined at each visit with your doctor.

During laser therapy, a high-energy beam of light is focused onto the damaged blood vessels, which seals off the leaking. However, it may take more than one treatment to seal off the damaged blood vessels.

The best way to control diabetic retinopathy involves early detection of the disease, along with a commitment from the patient to control his or her diabetes, including monitoring blood sugar levels, weight, and exercising regularly.

Proliferate retinopathy occurs when damaged blood vessels leak and the retina does not get enough oxygen and other vital nutrients it needs to function. This complication stimulates new blood vessel growth. The new blood vessels are fragile and prone to hemorrhaging, which can then destroy the retina.

Proliferate retinopathy can be treated with laser therapy, known as pan-retinal photocoagulation. During this treatment, the laser is used to apply hundreds of small burns to the retina, away from the macula. This procedure shrinks the abnormal vessels, but side vision and night vision could be permanently affected. However, without treatment, total blindness can occur.

If a large hemorrhage occurs in the jelly-like substance called the vitreous, located in the front of the retina, a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy may be needed. This involves removing the cloudy and blood-filled vitreous and replacing it with a clear salt solution.

Panretinal Photocoagulation

Although laser and vitrectomy treatments are successful, they do not cure diabetic retinopathy. Prevention of retinopathy is the best method to preserve vision. Checking blood sugar, controlling diet, and increasing exercise is the best way to minimize your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. If you are diabetic, a dilated, yearly, eye examination is mandatory to diagnose retinopathy before it enters into an advanced stage.

If you have Thyroid Eye Disease (TED), Tepezza may provide the relief you need. Tepezza is the first and only prescription medication approved by the FDA to treat TED. As an infusion medication, Tepezza is administered through an IV. This treatment consists of eight total infusions which generally take five months to complete.

TED causes the muscle and fat behind the eyes to swell. By targeting TED at its source, Tepezza reduces this swelling and relieves symptoms such as:

Tepezza is a drug for the treatment of thyroid eye disease. Thyroid eye disease is a

rare, autoimmune disease characterized by proptosis (a condition where the eyes are

pushed forward and bulge outward) leading to eye pain, double vision, and difficulty

closing the eyelid.

Patients who have active thyroid eye disease and meet specific clinical criteria are a

candidate for the drug.

Graves’ Orbitopathy is an autoimmune condition. It attacks the tissue surrounding the

eye causing inflammation in the tissues around and behind the eye.

In some patients, results will start to show at 6 weeks. For other patients, it may take as

long as 24 weeks. Improvements can be observed for up to about a year.

Related posts:

my heater sits beside me on my desk working hard — fulling its purpose ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎in life to ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‏‏‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎p‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‏‏‎…

Start living your life with a whole heart. It will start with you when you decide where you want to live. I always wondered when I travel somewhere if I want to go back home again or belong to this…

So far the role of product manager probably sounds pretty good. Maybe a bit broad and over-leveraged (scary!) but able to play a pivotal role in what actually gets done that expands the range of…