What is Diabetic Macular Edema? Warnings Signs Diabetes Is Affecting Your Vision
Submitted by Elman Retina Group on November 6, 2023
Diabetic macular edema is a type of eye disease that affects people with the metabolic condition diabetes, causing dark spots, blurry vision, and double vision. Edema is the medical term for swelling that can affect any part of the body. Macular edema is the swelling of the macula found in the center of the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye called the retina.
November is Diabetic Eye Disease Awareness Month, and our board-certified ophthalmologists and retinal specialists want you to understand how diabetes affects your vision and the warning signs of macular edema.
Diabetes and Eye Health
Diabetes-related macular edema causes inflammation and central vision loss. A swollen macula affects your ability to see fine details, making it challenging to identify familiar faces, read a book, or drive your car. Diabetic macular edema affects people with diabetic retinopathy, which occurs when blood vessels in the retina are damaged from long-term, uncontrolled blood sugar levels.
These blood vessels weaken and break open, leaking blood or fluid and causing scar tissue. Advanced or proliferative diabetic retinopathy happens when new, abnormal blood vessels grow in the wrong places inside the eye, which bleed and leak, causing more damage and permanent vision loss.
Warnings Signs of Diabetic Macular Edema
People with diabetes need annual comprehensive eye exams to identify early signs of diabetes-related eye disease before vision loss occurs. When diabetic eye disease progresses, you may experience increased eye floaters, changes in how you view colors, blurry or double vision, dark spots, and seeing straight lines as wavy or bent. Men and women with diabetic eye disease may have difficulty seeing under bright lights or when there is glare. Another warning sign of diabetic macular edema is when an object looks bigger when you view it with one eye versus the other.
Treating Diabetic Macular Edema
Diabetic macular edema treatments have improved in recent years with new therapies that may reverse vision damage for some patients. One type of treatment inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a protein that triggers new blood vessel growth. These anti-VEGF agents are the first-line treatment for diabetic macular edema.
Intravitreal injections into the vitreous (gel-like fluid filling the eye) of various medications can improve macular edema. Steroid implants, such as Ozurdex and Illuvien, may help. Steroids can reduce inflammation and better disease management to control blood sugar levels, and blood pressure can improve diabetic eye disease.
Laser treatment with photocoagulation can seal weakened blood vessels to stop them from leaking. For advanced cases, a vitrectomy can remove scar tissue and cloudy fluid from the vitreous.
Diabetic macular edema treatment often takes a combined approach, such as laser therapy with steroid injections or anti-VEGF agents.
If you have diabetes, schedule a comprehensive eye exam to investigate your eye health or vision problems. Contact Elman Retina Group in Rosedale, Glen Burnie, and Pikesville, Maryland, today at (410) 686-3000.
