In patients with diabetic retinopathy, once macular edema develops, vision will be significantly reduced, in some cases even below 0.1. This is when patients become very anxious to seek treatment options. Can macular edema be cured? What treatments are available? What are the efficacy and cost of each treatment method? These are the most important questions that patients would like to know. Can diabetic macular edema be cured? Because diabetes itself cannot be cured, the treatment of diabetic macular edema as a complication is also difficult, and so far there is no method that can completely cure all types of macular edema. The effects of diabetes on the retinal and choroidal vessels are already present and irreversible, then the leakage will always be present, meaning that the cause of the macular edema will persist. Even if the edema is absorbed after treatment, it tends to recur. In addition, the treatment may also pose a risk by damaging the retina in the macula. For example: if diabetic retinopathy appears elsewhere in the retina, we can take the classical method of treatment – laser, which completely encloses the area of the lesion within the laser spot; however, the macula is a special place, with very many photoreceptors, a very vigorous metabolism and high oxygen consumption, and all these invasive treatments will damage the photoreceptors, which means the treatment itself will make the photoreceptor cells lost and cause vision loss. Therefore, the treatment of diabetic macular edema has some difficulties. What are the methods to treat diabetic macular edema? Mainly by two methods: one is laser, which is the classical method; the second is vitreous cavity injection, and again, the injection of anti-VEGF drugs and glucocorticoids are the two main drugs. Our country issued new guidelines for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy at the end of last year, which includes the treatment of diabetic macular edema. The guidelines state that different treatment plans should be adopted for different types of macular edema. If the macular edema is localized and the presence of microangioma is clearly visible, and it is the root cause of the macular edema, laser treatment is preferred to “burn” the microangioma (which is the “culprit” causing the edema) to death, and the edema will naturally subside. However, there is no guarantee that the macular edema will never occur again, because as the glycolytic network continues to progress, the effects on the blood vessels will persist and new angiomas may appear again, leading to macular edema. Since laser is an invasive treatment, for other types of macular edema, such as diffuse or cystoid macular edema, laser treatment is not suitable due to the large area of edema, and the literature reports that for diffuse macular edema, the efficiency of laser treatment is only 15%-20%. The current expert consensus at home and abroad is that vitreous cavity injection therapy is preferred, and anti-VEGF drugs and glucocorticoids are commonly used. The injected drugs do not have the side effect of directly damaging the photoreceptor cells in the macula, but there are other risks associated with the injections. Clinically, doctors may also choose a combination of laser and vitreous cavity injections depending on the patient’s condition. For example, anti-VEGF drugs may be injected into the vitreous cavity as many times as necessary to treat the patient’s condition, followed by laser treatment of the macula. The drug injection first can make the macular edema subside as much as possible, and some remaining areas with microvascular leakage, which are impossible to eliminate by drugs, can be supplemented with laser treatment. At this time, the laser energy and range needed will be lower and the side effects will be less. The combined treatment of laser and vitreous cavity injection medication can maintain the macular edema for a longer time after it subsides, which can reduce the side effects of laser and also can minimize the number of injections and reduce the cost, as well as the risk brought by the injections. In addition to laser and vitreous cavity injection drug treatment, very few patients with diabetic macular edema need surgery. It is usually for patients who have macular anterior membrane, and macular edema is caused by mechanical pulling of macular area by macular anterior membrane, and surgery can be done to remove the anterior membrane so that macular edema can be relieved.