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When you have diabetes,
your body does not use or store sugar properly.
This can cause changes
in the vessels that carry blood throughout your body,
including your eyes.
These blood vessel changes can damage your eyes' retina,
harming your vision.
This eye disease is called diabetic retinopathy.
Your ophthalmologist has chosen
to treat your diabetic eye disease
with a type of laser surgery called focal laser treatment.
Focal laser surgery can help slow the progression
of your diabetic eye disease and save your sight.
To understand how diabetic eye disease affects your vision,
let's take a look at how the eye works.
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Light rays enter the eye
through the cornea, pupil, and lens.
These light rays are focused on the retina,
the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye.
The retina has two areas,
the peripheral retina,
which gives us our side, or wide-angle vision,
and the macula,
the small area at the center of the retina.
The macula gives us our pinpoint vision,
allowing us to see detail clearly.
With diabetic retinopathy,
damaged blood vessels in the retina
begin to leak fluids and blood.
When this fluid leaks,
it can cause the macula to swell or thicken.
This is called diabetic macular edema, or DME,
and it's the most common form of vision loss
for people with diabetes.
Because the macula is responsible for our central
or pinpoint vision,
macular edema will affect your ability to see clearly.
Laser surgery is often used to reduce swelling of the macula.
It is usually performed in an office setting.
An anesthetic is used to numb your eye,
and a special contact lens is placed on your eye
to help keep the eye from moving and to focus the laser.
It is important to keep your eyes as still as possible
during the treatment.
The procedure takes about 15 minutes.
With focal laser treatment for macular edema,
a laser is aimed at specific areas on the retina
to seal off leaking blood vessels.
The laser is not focused
directly on the center of the macula,
since this would affect your central vision.
The goal is to reduce blood vessel leakage around the macula
to help reduce swelling and slow vision loss.
Your ophthalmologist may recommend
several laser treatments to get the best results.
It is important to keep in mind that people who have developed
blurred vision from macular edema
might not recover their full normal vision
after laser surgery.
As with any surgery,
laser treatment for macular edema
has possible risks and complications.
Risks can include bleeding,
blind spots in your vision,
abnormal blood vessel growth,
ongoing or increasing vision loss,
and a need for more laser surgery,
eye surgery, or medication.
In some cases, medication injections
may be an alternative to,
or used along with laser surgery.
Your ophthalmologist can explain why he or she
chose laser surgery for your particular course of treatment.
You do not have to be treated for your diabetic retinopathy.
However, without treatment, diabetic eye disease
likely will lead to severe vision loss.
The main goal of treating diabetic eye disease
is to prevent further vision loss.
Treatment does not cure diabetic retinopathy,
but it is often effective in helping you keep your sight.
Be sure to keep all appointments
with your ophthalmologist after treatments.
Also, if you have any changes in your vision,
you should call your ophthalmologist right away.
Monitoring your vision is a vital step
toward the goal of preserving your sight.
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