I hear the word “laser” all the time, but what exactly is a laser? Why can it treat diabetic retinopathy (referred to as glycoplasty)? Many people doubt whether “laser” is reliable or not. You look down, to give you a detailed answer. The principle of laser treatment is to reduce oxygen consumption. The full name of laser is retinal laser photocoagulation, laser is actually an artificial light source, which is characterized by good directionality and concentrated energy. The laser is to use the thermal coagulation effect of the laser to strike the retinal lesion, after the heat of the lesion tissue adhesions and scarring, “dead”, the new blood vessels no longer continue to expand; and the whole retinal oxygen consumption will also be reduced, so that the central area of vision – the macula will be sufficient. -The macula is supplied with sufficient blood, which can be simply interpreted as “losing a pawn to save a cart”. If necessary, laser treatment for patients with diabetic retinopathy can prevent blindness, which is very reliable! Patients with diabetic retinopathy suffer from retinal microangiopathy caused by long-term hyperglycemia, resulting in insufficient blood and nutrient supply to the retina and vision loss. When patients with diabetic retinopathy reach stage III or IV, some of the retina has been severely lesioned, which not only does not contribute to vision, but also competes with the macula for nutrients, which is equivalent to “eating without working”. At this time, if we do not use laser, the retina will continue to be deprived of blood and oxygen and will be severely damaged, and more new blood vessels will grow. These new blood vessels will not only fail to provide nutrition to the retina, but also stimulate retinal fibrosis, and even pull the retina to cause retinal detachment, resulting in serious vision loss or even blindness. If laser photocoagulation surgery is done to scar the peripheral diseased retina, it can ensure sufficient blood and nutrient supply to the macula, so that the vision is preserved at the current level and the disease does not progress anymore, and many patients avoid biosurgery as a result. Before the advent of laser surgery, there was no good way to stop the progression of diabetic retinopathy, and one could only watch the progression of the sugar network step by step, and blindness was only a matter of time. Therefore, if you are eligible for laser, you should still do it as early as possible to prevent further progression of the disease. If you miss the best time for laser, and the sugar retina develops to stage V or VI, or even retinal detachment, you are likely to end up blind.