{"id":1988,"date":"2026-10-20T08:54:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laseristanbulclinic.com\/eye-health\/retina-glaucoma\/diabetic-retinopathy-treatment-and-prevention\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T12:59:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:59:44","slug":"diabetic-retinopathy-treatment-and-prevention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/laseristanbulclinic.com\/en\/eye-health\/retina-glaucoma\/diabetic-retinopathy-treatment-and-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Diabetic Retinopathy: Treatment and Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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  4. Diabetic Retinopathy: Treatment and Prevention<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/div>\t\t\t

    Diabetic Retinopathy: Treatment and Prevention<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    \"Retina<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

    Diabetic retinopathy is damage to the retina’s blood vessels caused by long-term high blood sugar. It often causes no symptoms at first, so regular screening is the main safeguard. Early stages are watched; advanced disease is treated with anti-VEGF injections, laser, steroid implants or vitrectomy surgery. Keeping blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol under control lowers the risk. In Istanbul, retina surgery is led by Do\u00e7. Dr. (Associate Professor) Muhammet Derda \u00d6zer and Op. Dr. Aysan Bayram.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n

    What is diabetic retinopathy, and what causes it?<\/h2><\/div>

    Diabetic retinopathy is an eye condition that can cause vision loss and blindness in people who have diabetes. It affects the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, according to the US National Eye Institute (NEI). Anyone with any type of diabetes can develop it, including type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes.<\/p>\n

    Diabetic retinopathy causes.<\/strong> The cause is long-term high blood sugar. The NHS explains that high glucose damages the retinal blood vessels, and that the risk rises with the length of time you have had diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Other risk factors named by EyeWiki, the clinical encyclopedia of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), are pregnancy, smoking and ethnicity.<\/p>\n

    How it happens, step by step (pathophysiology).<\/strong> In plain language, the sequence is:<\/p>\n

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    1. Chronic high blood sugar causes inflammation and oxidative stress in the retinal capillaries.<\/li>\n
    2. The cells that support the vessel walls (pericytes) and the capillaries themselves are damaged.<\/li>\n
    3. Damaged vessels leak fluid or close off, so parts of the retina receive less blood (ischaemia).<\/li>\n
    4. The starved retina releases more of a growth signal called VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor).<\/li>\n
    5. VEGF makes vessels leakier, which swells the macula (diabetic macular oedema), and triggers new, abnormal vessels to grow (neovascularisation).<\/li>\n
    6. The new vessels are fragile: they bleed into the eye’s gel (vitreous haemorrhage) and form scar tissue that can pull the retina off the back of the eye (tractional retinal detachment).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      How common is it?<\/strong> A 2021 meta-analysis of 59 population-based studies (Teo et al., Ophthalmology<\/em>) found diabetic retinopathy in about 22% of people with diabetes worldwide (22.27%), and vision-threatening disease in about 6%. It estimated 103 million people with the condition in 2020, rising to about 160 million by 2045. The NEI says that over time more than half of people with diabetes will develop some diabetic retinopathy, and about 1 in 15 will develop diabetic macular oedema. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the number of people living with diabetes rose from 200 million in 1990 to 830 million in 2022, so the burden is growing.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n\n

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      What are the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy?<\/h2>\n\t\t\t

      Early diabetic retinopathy usually has no symptoms.<\/strong> The NHS, NEI and AAO all say that the early stages can be present without any change you can notice. That is why you can have vision-threatening disease and still read the newspaper comfortably.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

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      Early stage diabetes eyes symptoms: what you can and cannot feel<\/h3>

      In the early stage, most people feel nothing at all. Some notice vision that is a little blurry or that changes from day to day, but this is not specific to retinopathy and is not a reliable warning sign. Do not wait for symptoms: attend every screening appointment, even if your eyesight seems fine.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

      Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy in later stages<\/h3>

      As the disease advances, the NHS, NEI and AAO list:<\/p>\n