Diabetic patients (insuline dependent and non insuline dependent) have 25% higher risk of developing serious visual problems than the normal population. In the U.S. diabetes is the most important cause of new blindness.
Diabetes causes essentially a micro angiopathy, which means that it affects the small vessels of the organism and as such the small vessels of the eye in the retina. This produces exudates, oedemas and bleedings in the retina.
A regular control and an early detection of these lesions is important to avoid the progression of visual loss. If necessary, treatment can be performed in different sessions. The treatment of diabetic lesions with the Argon laser is done in an ambulantory way at the consultation, after having used anaesthetic drops to numb the eye. A contact lens is placed on the eye to perform the laser treatment.
It is important that the diabetic patient is controlled regularly by his ophthalmologist throughout his live. The frequency of controls depends on the type of diabetes, the duration of diabetes and the kind of lesions. It is your ophthalmologist that will discuss with you the frequency of this controls.
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