Diabetic Macular Edema: Know About its Treatment

Diabetes is a serious condition that can disturb the functioning inside the human body. High blood sugar levels over a period of time makes a person vulnerable to many other complications. One common complication that usually accompanies diabetes is an eye problem called macular edema. It is a serious condition, if left untreated, can also lead to a permanent loss of vision. That is why doctors suggest people with diabetes to undergo eye tests regularly to screen and prevent eye problems at early stages.

What causes Macular Edema?

When your blood sugar levels remain constantly high, it exerts pressure on the blood vessels of your eyes. This weakens the vessels and they may start leaking blood and other fluids into the retina. The macula is the part of your eye that is responsible for clarity of vision. It swells up because of the leakage and cannot function properly which will inevitably lead to vision loss.

What are the Symptoms of Macular Edema?

• Vision will become blurry and slowly deteriorate

• Colors might also appear washed out or faded

Treatment of Macular Edema

To decide the treatment, your doctor may ask you some questions related to your diabetes history and also perform certain tests. The treatment of macular edema often starts with injecting certain medicines right into the eyes. They stop the leakage and prevent the fluids from flowing into the retina. These drugs also slow down the growth of new and abnormal blood vessels.

If this course of treatment does not work, doctors will opt for laser photocoagulation. With laser therapy, the doctor will seal up the leaky blood vessels. For the treatment to be effective, you will have to undergo several sessions. The procedure is not painful but you will feel a stinging sensation when the laser touches the eyes.

Another treatment that might complement the above-mentioned procedures is vitrectomy. During this procedure, the doctor extracts the fluid from the eyes that is clouding up your vision. Then the fresh clear fluid is injected back into the eyes.

Since prevention is always better than cure, it would be wiser to keep diabetes under control so that it does not affect your vision.