For diabetic retinopathy, timing is everything. It’s better to have great sugar control in the first few years of diagnosis than waiting. Dilated eye exams early on helps avoid most vision problems as well.
Vision loss is almost entirely preventable with early intervention, great blood sugar control, and a trusted Tampa eye doctor by your side. As a type 1 diabetic of over 35 years, Dr. Mahootchi has a particular interest in this condition and was the first Tampa Bay provider to use yellow micropulse lasers for diabetic retinopathy.
Read on to learn more about the progression of diabetic retinopathy and how you can retain your vision with help from Dr. Mahootchi.
Mild Nonproliferative Retinopathy
The earliest stage of diabetic retinopathy, mild nonproliferative retinopathy occurs when the blood vessels in the retina develop microaneurysms, which are small areas of small areas of weakening of the blood vessel walls. It takes months or years or poor sugar control to get to this stage. However, patients don’t typically develop obvious symptoms.
The disease is mostly reversible at this stage but it can take 2 years or more to reverse.
An eye doctor in Tampa Bay can diagnose mild nonproliferative retinopathy with a comprehensive eye exam with pupil dilation. At this stage, blood sugar management and regular eye exams are key. Dr. Mahootchi may offer additional individualized recommendations to better preserve your retina.
Diabetic Macular Edema
With longer-term poor sugar control and/or eye exams or early action, the blood vessels can start to leak. This puts fluid in the areas of the retina you use for your best central, reading, and color vision. If you had a drop of water on the center of your film in your camera you wouldn’t be able to see very well. The same thing happens in the eye. If the fluid stays there long it can damage and stretch the retina so that a clear image can’t be obtained. Laser treatment used to be the standard of care but in the last 20 years, medicines placed in the eye do a better job of preserving vision. The treatments buy you time to get better sugar control and reverse the disease process.
Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy.
Proliferative retinopathy can occur with or without macular edema.
This condition involved new blood vessels growing, breaking, and bleeding inside the eye. This is caused when long-term poor sugar control kills the native blood vessels and the blood supply is lost to areas of the retina. When this happens, the starving areas of the retina release a chemical messenger that encourages new blood vessel growth. The new blood vessels however grow in the wrong place. Left untreated or treated too late can cause horrible vision loss.
The most common cause of vision loss under age 70 in Tampa is diabetic retinopathy, which is 100% preventable. Yet, decades after good treatment options, it’s still the most common cause of vision loss. As a country, we are way too slow to take diabetes seriously early on. Patients and their doctors can get lax on getting seriously good sugar control early and getting dilated eye exams done early.
Dr. Mahootchi has 30 years of experience treating and preventing diabetic retinopathy. He can develop a plan of action to preserve your vision and prevent serious complications from diabetic retinopathy in Tampa Bay. Contact us today to schedule an appointment!