Retinopatic diabetes threatens to blind

Diabetes is a condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin to convert sugar into energy, causing a buildup of sugar in the blood. This causes a number of problems, including diabetic retinopathy, which is one of the main causes of new blindness in adults in Indonesia.

Diabetic retinopathy is a disorder of blood vessels in the retina in patients with diabetes mellitus. This is the main cause of new blindness in adults in developing countries, including Indonesia.

The risk of diabetic retinopathy increases with the duration of diabetes. About 60–80% of patients with diabetes for 15 years or more have damaged blood vessels in their eyes. Some of these patients are at risk for blindness. especially for diabetics with uncontrolled blood sugar.

In the early stages, high blood sugar can damage the retina's thin blood vessels. At first, small blood spots with a collection of inflammation will appear on the retina.

Then it will progress to proliferative retinopathy (complications caused by diabetes getting worse), which progresses from small bleeding spots to eyeball bleeding and is the cause of most blindness in diabetics.

In this condition, new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina and optic nerve. These new blood vessels tend to burst, and blood flows into the eye sockets. Injury to the network of ruptured blood vessels can also contract and pull on the retina, causing retinal detachment and blindness. In some cases, new blood vessels can also grow in the iris of the eye (the ring-shaped area of the eye that is lined by the pupil, the part that gives color to the eye, and the sclera, the white part of the eye) and cause glaucoma or damage to the optic nerve, which also causes glaucoma. lead to blindness.

Your vision may blur gradually, which is often not noticed. In some patients, blood vessels leak into the macula of the eye, which is the part of the retina responsible for central (central) vision, causing loss of vision.

The ophthalmologist may suggest a funduscopy examination procedure (an eye examination that is considered to be able to accurately detect various serious diseases early) and then fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA), which is a technique to examine the circulation of the retina and choroid (part of the fundus) using fluorescent dye and a special camera so that it can help detect early effects of diabetic retinopathy.

In proliferative retinopathy (a complication caused by advanced diabetes), patients may experience clouded vision or blindness when the bleeding occurs. Although you may not feel any pain at all, this severe form of diabetic retinopathy requires immediate medical attention.

To reduce the risk of diabetic retinopathy, diabetics should control their blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Unfortunately, even if blood sugar levels are well controlled, the risk of diabetic retinopathy does not completely disappear.

Laser treatment is used to close abnormal blood vessel leaks. Small beams of laser energy can seal leaking blood vessels and form small scars inside the eye. This laser scar reduces the growth of new blood vessels and causes existing young blood vessels to constrict and close.

However, laser treatment cannot be used on every patient. A procedure called a vitrectomy or surgery to treat various disorders of the retina, along with other surgical procedures, is needed for complex cases where vitreous bleeding (bleeding that occurs inside the eyeball) occurs and scar tissue forms. Early detection through eye examination and appropriate treatment is the key to successful treatment.