About laser treatment of diabetic retinopathy, many people have heard various versions of “propaganda introduction”, such as “laser can be played at any time, if you can stand it”, “playing laser is particularly painful”, “after playing laser will be a sharp decline in vision”, “playing is not useful” and so on. “The most important thing is that you should be able to see the difference between your eyesight and your eyesight. Rumor: Laser can be done at any time, if you can stand it Truth: When to get laser, the condition says it all! In general, diabetic retinopathy to stage III or IV should be considered for laser. In general, laser is considered for stage III or IV diabetic retinopathy. The specific direction of the laser is determined by the results of the fundus fluoroscopy. The location and size of the retinal lesion will be determined by the test, and if the area of the retina without blood perfusion is larger than 4PD (PD is the diameter of the optic disc), laser will be considered. However, the later the laser is performed, the better. The symptoms of many patients with retinopathy do not match the stage, and some patients with retinopathy have already reached stage III or IV, but do not have significant vision loss, so it is easy to think that the disease is mild and choose to “push through”, missing a good time for laser. Rumor: The laser procedure is particularly painful Truth: Laser under anesthesia, almost painless The laser procedure is not complicated, if the doctor determines after examination that the patient is suitable for laser, the appointment will be done in the clinic. The procedure requires a few drops of surface anesthetic to make the eye surface painless. The patient wears a contact lens on the cornea and sits in front of a slit lamp so the doctor can see the bottom of the patient’s eye and simply aim the laser at the diseased tissue and then strike it. A laser photocoagulation treatment takes about 20 minutes and is usually performed 4 to 5 times depending on the patient’s condition. There is no pain in the process of playing laser, some patients say that after playing eye discomfort or headache, in fact, is not caused by the laser, often due to age, a nervous blood vessels some spasm caused by head ischemia, relaxation will be fine. Rumor: Playing laser is not effective, but also lead to vision loss Truth: After playing laser vision loss is temporary Some patients do laser photocoagulation, blurred vision or even invisible, in fact, is a temporary vision loss. This is because the retina is bleached after slit light exposure, as well as due to the paralysis of the eye’s regulatory function after dilated pupil, which can generally be recovered within 5 hours. And, the so-called total retinal photocoagulation, hit also the retinal periphery, the optic disc and macular area can never be hit, so it will not lead to permanent vision loss. On the contrary, hitting the laser can control the progression of the sugar network, so that patients are less likely to progress to the point of retinal detachment, preserving the eye and also preserving vision.