Management of diabetic retinopathy. An overview.

Diabetic retinopathy is a highly specific vascular complication of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It remains one of the commonest causes of visual loss in people of working age in developed countries. Both duration of diabetes and glycaemic control are significant risk factors for the development of retinopathy. After 20 years of diabetes, nearly all patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, and more than 60% of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, have some degree of retinopathy. Although at present there is no known cure for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular oedema, laser surgery and other therapeutic modalities help minimize the risk of mild and severe visual loss from these conditions and, in some cases, restore useful vision for those patients who have suffered significant visual loss. These therapeutic modalities, particularly laser treatment, are most effective when initiated at the time a person is at high-risk for proliferative diabetic retinopathy or before visual acuity is lost from diabetic macular oedema.