Screening

Our practice screens diabetic patients on an ongoing basis for tell tale signs of diabetic related eye problems. All our diabetic patients have their pupils enlarged for a full view of the inside of the eye. We photograph the retina with a digital camera so that their family doctor has a record. We also give the doctor a copy of each diabetic patient’s field of vision.

Information About Diabetes

The modern world and ever changing technology means that most of us are fortunate enough to live well into ‘old age’.

This is wonderful, however as a result more and more of us are developing problems with our eyes. There are more people than ever before who are now diagnosed as being diabetic, or diagnosed with cataracts. This can be very daunting and worrying unless we understand how these conditions can be managed.

Diabetes develops when an organ in our body called the pancreas does not release a hormone called insulin into our blood properly. Insulin regulates the sugar levels in our blood, so without it our blood sugar levels become haphazard. The back of our eyes is called the retina. The retina has many blood vessels - namely arteries, veins and capillaries. If the blood sugar levels are not nicely regulated it may happen that blood leaks from the vessel into the back of the eye. This is called a haemorrhage. This results in two problems. Firstly the haemorrhage will block a part of our vision, and secondly the haemorrhage has the potential to spread and block even more of our vision. The blood vessels may also begin to leak fatty deposits called lipids. These lipids will also disturb our vision.

The above paragraph sounds very daunting, but this need not be so. Regular eye tests will pick up on these changes quite easily. If these changes are detected in their early stages they can be managed efficiently. The easiest way to manage this is to have an early diagnosis of diabetes. Sometimes changing the diet alone can prevent more of these changes in the back of the eye. Other times diet and medication can control this quite well.

The Facts

• Knowing that you are diabetic is not a problem, it’s not knowing that is a major problem because then it is not being controlled and managed
• Diabetes most definitely will cause eye problems if it is not controlled
• It is easy to manage the eye problems that may result from diabetes. This may simply require diet changes and medication
• Even if the blood and lipids are leaking they can be ‘plugged’ by having laser treatment on the back of your eye. This is generally very successful as well.
• We have no excuse not to have our eyes tested because even if we can’t get to the optometrist, companies like The Outside Clinic are more than happy to come to us

For further information visit: http://www.diabetes.org.uk