Several misconceptions in the treatment of diabetic eye disease

  There are many eye problems caused by diabetes, such as diabetic retinopathy, cataract, neovascular glaucoma, diabetic optic neuropathy, and retinal macular edema, among which diabetic retinopathy is the most common. However, often diabetic patients do not pay attention to it and are not willing to go to the hospital for eye examination. Even many diabetic patients do not think that the development of the disease will affect the eyes.  1, pay attention to lowering sugar, not pay attention to lowering blood pressure and lipids.  For patients who have not yet developed diabetic eye lesions, diabetes should be treated by endocrinologists with drugs and diet control and other methods, which is the fundamental method to prevent and treat diabetic eye lesions.  Diabetic eye disease is very closely related to blood sugar, so from the day diabetes is diagnosed, blood sugar should be strictly controlled as required. Many studies now prove that early and effective control of blood glucose to normal can greatly reduce the occurrence of diabetic eye disease or delay its development. In addition, diabetes often has comorbidities, such as increased blood pressure and dyslipidemia, which also play an important role in the development and progression of diabetic eye lesions, so controlling blood glucose and controlling blood pressure are the two cores.  Once the eye lesion occurs or has progressed to severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy, or even neovascular glaucoma, it is difficult to improve the fundus condition with simple systemic treatment, and then local treatment of the eye needs to be considered.  2. Fear of trouble and unwillingness to go to ophthalmology for long-term follow-up.  Patients with diabetic retinopathy need long-term follow-up because the lesion is not static but progressive. In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, patients often do not have typical symptoms, and it is often not easy to detect the disease in one eye, so regular follow-up with an ophthalmologist is required after the diagnosis of diabetes is established. The follow-up interval can be set at one year for those without diabetic retinopathy, and should be shortened for those with retinopathy.  At present, no specific drugs have been developed to treat diabetic ophthalmopathy, which means that there is no way to prevent the occurrence and development of diabetic ophthalmopathy from the root. However, clinical practice has shown that some drugs with the effect of improving blood circulation and preventing platelet aggregation are effective for diabetic eye lesions.  3, only check the eyesight, not willing to check the fundus.  Diabetic patients should not be reluctant to do fundus examination because of good eyesight. It is important to know that when vision loss is obvious, diabetic retinopathy is mostly advanced. Therefore, it is unreliable to detect diabetic retinopathy by checking the visual acuity. Patients with diabetes often mistakenly believe that diabetic retinopathy will not occur as long as their blood sugar is well controlled.  For patients with early-stage diabetes, strict blood sugar control can indeed delay the onset of diabetic retinopathy. However, once the disease is advanced, blood sugar control alone cannot play any role in the occurrence and progression of diabetic retinopathy, but requires laser or even surgical treatment.  4. Thinking that the eye disease is advanced, give up treatment early.  Many patients or family members think that diabetic retinopathy has reached an advanced stage and give up the treatment, which is wrong. At present, with the continuous improvement and perfection of laser and surgical equipment, even if the fundus hemorrhage is invisible, 90% of patients with advanced diabetic retinopathy can still recover some vision through laser treatment or vitrectomy. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of life in the future, treatment opportunities should be pursued.  In the past, cataract was the first of many eye diseases that cause blindness. However, with the improvement of treatment technology, cataracts can be cured through surgery. Today, diabetic retinopathy has become the leading cause of blindness. The blindness rate of diabetic patients is 25 times higher than that of normal people.