Diabetic Retinopathy

What is Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy happens when high blood sugar levels damage the tiny vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye. Sometimes, in the early stages of the disease, no noticeable changes to vision occur. But sometimes vision can become affected as leaking fluid causes swelling in the central part of the retina, called the macula.

In later stages of the disease, blood vessels can grow on top of the retina. These can leak or do other damage to the retina and cause serious vision loss.

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in North America.

What Are the Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Annual dilated eye exams are vital—you can’t rely on symptoms alone to catch early retinal changes, as you may not have symptoms in the early stages of the disease. As it advances, symptoms can include:

Blurred or distorted central vision
Straight lines appearing curved, or other sudden vision changes
Floaters or spots in your vision

When properly diagnosed and treated, diabetic retinopathy rarely leads to severe vision loss.

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UR Medicine's Treatments for Diabetic Retinopathy

UR Medicine’s Flaum Eye Institute works hand-in-hand with UR Medicine Primary Care and other specialties to minimize damage to the eyes caused by diabetes.

Diagnosis: Regular Eye Exams

Annual dilated eye exams are vital—you can’t rely on symptoms alone to catch early retinal changes. To diagnose diabetic retinopathy, your eye care team may use:

A dilated eye exam to view vessels in the retina
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) to detect macular swelling
Fluorescein angiography to spot leaking or damaged vessels

These regular eye exams can identify early damage before symptoms arise.

Treatment

To treat diabetic retinopathy, our retina specialists might use:

Lifestyle & medical control: Controlling high blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol helps reduce the risk and severity.
Medications and injections: Anti-VEGF drugs or steroids can reduce swelling and bleeding from damaged vessels.
Laser treatment: Laser surgery seals leaking vessels and stops scar tissue from pulling on the retina.
Advanced surgery: Other surgery to save or restore vision in advanced cases of the disease.

These treatments rarely lead to severe vision loss when diagnosed early and combined with proper care.

What Sets Us Apart?

Flaum Eye Institute is a leading research center for diabetic eye disease. This includes our development of specialized imaging techniques that are uncovering how the disease progresses, and allow researchers to test new medicines that might be helpful in treating it.

UR Medicine offers expert retina specialists focused on diabetic eye disease, state-of-the-art imaging and research into new therapies, and personalized treatment plans combining medical care, injections, laser, or surgery.