Author: Nader Moinfar, M.D.

Cystoid Macular Edema

This type of macular swelling is very common and even occurs after cataract surgery.

What is Cystoid Macular Edema?

Cystoid macular edema, aka CME, affects the functional center of the retina, the macula.  It is another term for macular edema where multiple cyst-like areas of swelling develop.

There are multiple causes of CME to include:

  • Retinal Vascular Occlusions (RVO)
  • Intraocular inflammation (uveitis or iritis)
  • Diabetic retinopathy
  • Uncomplicated cataract surgery

Symptoms of Cystoid Macular Edema

The main symptom of CME is blurry vision.  There may also be some symptoms of distortion, poor color perception and minification, but most patients note blurry vision.

Because this is a condition of the macula, only central vision is affected.  The peripheral or side vision is not involved.

Blurry vision can occur from a variety of eye conditions and is not a specific symptom of cystoid macular edema. 

CME after Cataract Surgery

About 1-3% of patients will develop cystoid macular edema following cataract surgery.  This can occur several weeks following uncomplicated cataract surgery.  Before modern phacoemulsification techniques evolved, CME developed in as many as 10% of patients.

For reasons unknown, fluid starts to accumulate in the macula.  Patients are often frustrated because the vision following surgery was excellent, only to get worse. 

Treatment and Prognosis

CME following cataract surgery is usually self limited, that is, there is full restoration of vision and function after several weeks of treatment.  The condition does not usually recur, but there is increased risk of developing CME in the fellow eye.

Treatment for CME following cataract surgery often involves topical anti-inflammatory eye drops.  Steroid drops are often quite effective.  In more complicated cases, injections of steroid around the eye may be helpful

Because CME can develop from other situations other than cataract surgery, treatments and prognosis vary widely.  For instance, cystoid macular edema following a branch retinal vein occlusion may involve anti-VEGF injections or depot steroids.  

Cystoid macular edema can also be caused by certain glaucoma drops or following complicated cataract surgery.  Surgery may be necessary to treat the macular swelling due to complications of cataract surgery. 

Consultation with a retinal specialist may be needed.

What is a Choroidal Nevus?

A freckle in your is usually benign, but there is a concern about choroidal nevi.

A choroidal nevus is the fancy term for a freckle in the retina.

A nevus is the medical term for mole. Nevi is the plural of nevus. A nevus can appear on your skin, the surface of the eye or inside the eye. 

When a nevus is inside the eye it is called a choroidal nevus because those types are found under the retina in the layer of tissue called the choroid.

A nevus is a cluster of melanocytes—the cells that produce melanin. They are the pigment that colors hair, skin, and eyes. They are much more common in people with lighter skin tones.

They are often referred to as eye freckles and the ones that appear inside the eye are discovered during routine eye exams and are usually harmless and most of them won’t affect your vision or cause any problems and they require no treatment except monitoring the nevus for changes.

Three Types of Eye Nevi

  • A nevus in the white part of your eye, conjunctival nevus, are common and range from yellow to brown and can lighten or darken over time. 
  • Nevi in the iris (the colored part of your eye) are tiny, dark brown flecks on the surface of the iris and can grow larger over time but are usually harmless and usually do not become melanomas. 
  • A choroidal nevus is typically gray, but can be brown, yellow, or variably pigmented. They are also mostly harmless.  

Most nevi do not need to be treated and will not affect your vision or lead to any other health problems. The only reason you might need treatment is if your doctor suspects the nevus might be a melanoma.

What Causes a Nevus?

The cause of eye nevi is not known, but there are associations between eye nevi and UV light. Wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes from ultraviolet light is always recommended.

A Choroida Nevus can be Suspicious for Cancer

A very small percentage of choroidal nevi have features that make them at a higher risk of growing into a melanoma. Those choroidal nevi should be monitored by your doctor through regular eye exams. Very rarely, a choroidal nevus may leak fluid or be linked to abnormal blood vessel growth.

There are five factors that signal the choroidal nevus should be closely monitored:

  • Thickness of greater than 2.00 mm
  • Subretinal fluid
  • Visual symptoms
  • Orange pigment of the nevus
  • A part of the nevus touching the optic nerve

Very often, suspicious cases are referred to a retina specialist or ocular oncologist for further evaluation.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Face Mask May Increase Eye Infections

Here’s another reason to be careful about wearing a mask.

Wearing a face mask is important for patients from the moment they walk into a clinic to protect themselves and others from SARS-CoV-2 infection. But additional safety measures should be used when the patient is wearing a face mask and receiving intravitreal injections to prevent contamination that could occur when exhaled breath is blown toward their eyes.

A study to investigate the air that escapes from the top of face masks used a thermal camera and found that air jets originating from the top edges of face masks and radiating toward the eye were detected in 81% of cases.

3 Face Masks

Three face masks were tested. A regular face mask with four tying strips, one with elastic ear loops, and the 220 N95 tuberculosis particulate face mask.

Exhaled breath that is normally blown forward is blocked by face masks and that air is redirected toward the eye. People who wear glasses and face masks are aware of this issue. It causes their glasses to fog up.

Anti-VEGF injections have a very low risk of endophthalmitis. Several large studies have estimated the risk at approximately 0.05% or 5 in 10,000 for any individual patient receiving monthly injections. Having face masks blowing air into the eye could increase that risk slightly and for that reason extra precautions are recommended.  

Study Recommendations

The additional precaution can be done in one of two ways—a surgical drape can be used to isolate the eye or medical adhesive tape can be applied on the upper border of the face mask to block air passage. The study also recommends using an eyelid speculum to keep the eye open and prevent the eyelid from coming into contact with the needle.

The study’s author, Amir Hadayer, MD, says, “Protocols for preparing patients for intravitreal injections vary and not all specialists use draping and a speculum in normal times, but under the current circumstances, these extra precautions are recommended.”

What is Endophthalmitis?

Endophthalmitis is an infection that causes severe inflammation of the tissues inside the eye. The infection is typically caused by bacteria for fungi.

Symptoms of Endophthalmitis

  • Decreased vision
  • Pain
  • Redness or swelling of the eye

These symptoms don’t always mean you have endophthalmitis, but if you experience one or more of these symptoms, contact your ophthalmologist.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Eye Scan Detects Alzheimer’s Disease

A simple retina scan may soon become a non-invasive method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, and those at risk.

The abnormal proteins that cause Alzheimer’s Disease can build up in the brain two decades before the onset of symptoms and researchers have been searching for ways to detect the disease sooner. Early detection could mean that medications that slow Alzheimer’s progression could be started sooner. The effectiveness of any early treatments could be monitored with eye scans.

Non-Invasive Hi-Res Imaging

Researchers at Duke University and at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found evidence that Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scans can detect the changes in the tiny capillaries and the thinning of the retinal layers in the eye that signal the beginnings of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Sharon Fekrat, from Duke University Medical Centre in the US, said: “We’re measuring blood vessels that can’t be seen during a regular eye exam and we’re doing that with relatively new noninvasive technology that takes high-resolution images of very small blood vessels within the retina in just a few minutes.”

Alzheimer’s Causes Retinal Thinning

Microscopic blood vessels form a dense web at the back of the eye inside the retina. In Alzheimer’s patients, researchers saw that that web was less dense, and there was a loss of small retinal blood vessels. The retinal nerve fiber layer was also thinner in patients without Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers think that reduced levels of acetylcholine in the brain causes some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Acetylcholine is one of the neurotransmitter chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate with one another in the brain. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine and are used to boost the cell-to-cell communication that gets depleted in Alzheimer’s disease.

What is OCT?

Optical coherence tomography is a non-invasive imaging test that uses light waves to take cross-section images of the retina. An OCT shows each of the distinctive layers of the retina. The OCT produces a three-dimensional map of the eye and can show areas of the eye that are abnormal.

The images from an OCT scan are high resolution because they are based on light, rather than sound, as in an ultrasound, or radio frequency, as in an MRI. Because the OCT shows cross-sections of tissues layers, nerve fiber thickness can be measured. 

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

What Causes a Macular Hole?

Retinal surgery sometimes uses injection of gas into the eye, especially when you have a macular hole.

Causes of a macular hole are discussed in this article and explained in the embedded video.

A macular hole is a hole at the very center of the retina. The retina is the layer of tissue that lines the inside of the eye and it contains millions of light-sensitive cells that receive and send visual information to the brain.

The macula portion of the retina contains the highest concentration of light-sensitive cells and is responsible for high-resolution, detailed central vision and most of our color vision.

Holes in the macula can be caused by injury, but most macular holes occur in people over the age of 60 and are caused by the vitreous gel in the eye pulling on the macula. These are called idiopathic macular holes and are, for reasons unknown, more common in women than men.

The Role of the Vitreous in Macular Holes

The vitreous contains millions of microscopic fibers that attach to the retina. As people age the vitreous slowly shrinks and pulls away from the retina’s surface and natural fluid fills in the area where the vitreous contracted. This is normal and usually causes no problems beyond possibly seeing “floaters” in your visual field from time to time.

However, in some cases the vitreous is so firmly attached to the retina that when it pulls away it can tear the retina slightly and cause a hole to form. Small holes sometimes heal on their own, but they can also gradually increase in size causing vision loss.

Other Causes of Macular Hole

The following additional conditions can cause a macular hole to develop:

  • Blunt trauma to the eye
  • Diabetic eye disease 
  • High degree of myopia (nearsightedness)
  • Macular pucker—caused by scar tissue on the macula

Symptoms of a Macular Hole

In the early stages there may be a slight distortion or blurriness in central vision. As the hole increases in size, straight lines and objects look bent or wavy, vision becomes increasingly blurrier and a dark spot may appear in the center of your vision.

Treatment of Macular Holes

A surgery to remove the vitreous gel (vitrectomy) and prevent it from continuing to pull on the retina is currently the best way to repair a macular hole. After the removal of the vitreous gel, a bubble containing a mixture of air and gas is put into the eye to prevent subretinal fluid from seeping behind your retina and destabilizing the healing process.

The gas bubble will slowly dissipate and be replaced with aqueous humor produced by your eye. You may be asked to keep your head in a face-down position for several days to keep the bubble in place. CAUTION: As long as any of the gas bubble remains in your eye you must not fly in an airplane because the bubble can expand in the reduced pressure of the cabin causing severe pain and possible loss of sight.

Another potential treatment for some patients with macular holes is the injection of an antiplasmin inhibitor that inactivates plasmin, an enzyme that breaks down the fibrin in blood clots.

Success Rate

The vitrectomy success rate is over 90% with patients regaining most of their lost vision. The gas bubble starts to shrink 7 to 10 days after the vitrectomy, but it takes about 6 to 8 weeks for the gas bubble to be totally absorbed. Vision will continue to improve during that 6 to 8 week time.

Complications

In less than 10% of cases the vitrectomy may cause cataract formation, retinal detachment, infection, glaucoma, bleeding or a re-opening of the macular hole. 

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Should You Be Taking Vitamins for AMD?

Are these vitamins for you? Here’s who benefits the most and who shoujld be taking them.

Do you take vitamins for AMD?

The National Eye Institute conducted the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) and AREDS2 to study both cataract and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The study followed participants for five years and tested whether taking nutritional supplements (vitamins for AMD) could prevent or slow these two eye diseases.

AREDS Results

At the end of the five-year study, the scientists found that people at high risk for developing advanced AMD—those with intermediate AMD, and those with advanced AMD in one eye only—reduced their risk of developing advanced by about 25 percent when treated with the combination of antioxidants and zinc + copper. 

The AREDS formula also reduced the risk of central vision loss by 19% in the same group. None of the formulations decreased cataract risk.

Who Benefits the Most?

The study found that those who benefit most from taking vitamins for AMD are people at high risk for developing macular degeneration and who meet these two conditions:

  • Intermediate AMD in one or both eyes
  • Advanced AMD in only one eye

AREDS Vitamins for AMD

The AREDS 2 vitamins do not contain beta carotene because in the study researchers found that beta carotene in high amounts was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer in current and former smokers.

You can purchase AREDS 2 vitamins or take the supplements separately. The following is the AREDS 2 formulation:

  •  Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) 500 mg
  • Vitamin E 400 international units (IU)
  • Lutein 10 mg
  • Zeaxanthin 2 mg
  • Zinc (as zinc oxide) 80 mg 
  • Copper (as cupric oxide) 2 mg

Healthy Foods

Taking vitamins is just one step in creating a healthy environment for your eyes. Eating a healthy diet is an essential second step. Include lots of dark leafy greens, like spinach and kale, along with other colorful vegetables and fruits. Colorful vegetables and fruits provide a wide range of phytonutrients along with carotenoids that your body converts into vitamin A.  

Smoking puts you at a higher risk for AMD, so if you smoke, then stopping will be another step toward eye health.

Consult Your Doctor

Talk with your eye doctor about your primary care physician about how taking the AREDS or AREDS 2 vitamins will affect you.  

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Causes of Distorted Vision

What’s the difference between blurry and distorted vision? Here are some causes.

Distorted vision is not the same as blurry vision. Visual distortion causes the straight edges of things and straight lines on paper to appear wavy and it causes objects to appear bent or misshapen.

Visual distortion can be caused by eye diseases, injury to the eye, eye infection, or inflammation. It could be caused by abnormal blood vessels that are leaking under the retina and affecting the macula—the part of the retina at the back of the eye that has a very high concentration of photoreceptor cells and that is responsible for our central vision.

In diabetics, increased blood sugar can cause the lenses of the eyes to swell with fluid and cause visual distortion. In people with age-related macular degeneration, it could signal that dry macular degeneration has become “wet” macular degeneration.

Because it could signal serious eye conditions, always see an eye care professional when you experience visual distortions. 

Common Diagnostic Exams

The exact cause of distorted vision must be diagnosed so the proper treatment can be started. A dilated eye exam along with specialized medical imaging techniques are used to diagnose the cause of visual distortion.

Dilated eye exam. Dilating the pupil allows the doctor to closely examine the condition of the macula and detect the presence of blood vessel leakage or cysts.

Optical coherence tomography. This type of imaging captures detailed microscopic views of the cell layers inside the retina. It detects the thickness of the retina, making it useful in determining the amount of swelling in the macula.

Fluorescein angiogram. In this test, a special dye is injected into your arm and a camera takes photos of the retina as the dye travels through the blood vessels. This test helps your ophthalmologist identify the leaking blood vessels and the amount of damage they have done to the macula.

Monitoring Your Vision at Home

The Amsler Grid. The Amsler Grid is a good way to test the functioning of your macula by detecting visual distortions. If you have a pre-existing condition that can affect your vision, using an Amsler Grid daily can help you detect the first signs of visual distortion that signal eye involvement. 

AMSLER GRID

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOME USE:  Wear glasses if you need them and look at the Amsler Grid from about 14 inches away. Test both eyes, one at a time, to see if any parts of the grid look distorted, missing, or dark. Mark the areas of the chart that you’re not seeing properly and bring it with you to your eye exam.

Treatments

There is no single treatment for the various causes of distortion. The exact cause will dictate possible therapeutic options.

If you are experiencing distortion, especially if it of recent onset, please contact your eye doctor.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Diabetic Retinopathy: Your Risk Factors

If you have diabetes, what’s your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy?

What’s your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness in American adults.  

Anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes can develop diabetic retinopathy, but your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy increases the longer you have diabetes.

According to the National Eye Institute, 2 in 5 Americans with diabetes have some stage of diabetic retinopathy. But you can lower your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy by controlling your blood sugar levels.

Women who develop gestational diabetes are at high risk for developing diabetic retinopathy. If you are diabetic and are pregnant, have a comprehensive dilated eye exam as soon as possible. Ask your doctor if you will need additional eye exams during your pregnancy.

Major Risk Factors:

  • Long-duration of diabetes (10+ years)
  • Poor blood sugar and blood pressure control

Additional Risk Factors:

  • Becoming pregnant if you are diabetic or developing gestational diabetes during a pregnancy
  • Having diabetes and being African-American, Hispanic, or Native American
  • High cholesterol
  • Smoking

Complications 

Retinal detachment. Diabetic retinopathy causes an abnormal growth of blood vessels which can also produce scar tissue. The scar tissue can pull the retina away from the back of the eye. This may cause spots that float in your vision, flashes of light, or a loss of vision. 

Glaucoma. The abnormal blood vessels may grow in the front part of your eye and interfere with the normal flow of fluid out of the eye and cause excessive eye pressure. Over time this pressure can damage the optic nerve that carries images from your eyes to your brain.

Vitreous hemorrhage. The abnormal blood vessels can also bleed into the clear, jelly-like substance that fills the center of your eye. If there is only a small amount of bleeding you will see a few dark spots (floaters). If the bleeding is severe it can fill the vitreous and block your vision.

Unless your retina is damaged, the blood will clear from your eye in a few weeks. The blood often clears from the eye within a few weeks or months. Unless your retina is damaged, your vision will return to normal.

Blindness. Left untreated, diabetic retinopathy can lead to complete vision loss.

Preventions

Control your blood sugar. You can help control your blood sugar by making healthy food choices and getting at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. That amount of exercise could be accomplished by taking a brisk 30-minute walk 5 times a week. Make sure you take any diabetes medication as directed.

Monitor your blood sugar. Ask your doctor how frequently you should test your blood sugar. You may need to do so several times a day.

Get an A1c test. The A1c test will show you and your doctor your average blood sugar level for a two-to-three-month period. This monitoring will help you learn if your diabetes has been under good control and help you and your doctor make beneficial changes to your diet or medications if needed.

Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol under control. Eating a healthy diet, regular exercise and losing weight can help. You may also need some medications.

Get a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once a year. Regularly monitoring the health of your eyes allows your eye doctor to start treatment before in the early stage of diabetic retinopathy any complications develop.

Don’t smoke. Smoking increases your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy and other complications of diabetes.  

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Diabetes: You Can Take Charge

November is Diabetes Awareness. Newly diagnosed with diabetes or know someone? Share this article.

Diabetes is a serious life-long condition, but there’s a lot you can do to protect your health. If you have been newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, this article offers you tips for managing your diabetes.

Overtime complications of diabetes caused by uncontrolled blood sugar can develop in the eyes (diabetic retinopathy), the kidneys (diabetic nephropathy), and the feet (diabetic neuropathy). Those three areas all receive their blood supply from tiny blood vessels called microvasculature that are susceptible to damage from high blood sugar levels.  

However, when blood sugar is well controlled the rate of complications falls. A 1% decrease in the A1c test that is maintained decreases your risk of microvascular complications by about 37%.

Taking care of your diabetes or prediabetes right after diagnosis will pay off in your long-term health.

Managing Your Type 2 Diabetes

The following steps will help keep your blood sugar levels closer to normal and maintaining close-to-normal blood sugar levels can delay or prevent diabetic complications:

  • Weight loss and maintenance of the weight loss
  • Healthy diet
  • Regular exercise
  • Blood sugar monitoring
  • Using diabetes medications as prescribed

Watch your diet

There is no “diabetes diet”, but making efforts each day to take the following steps will help put you on the right track for lowering your blood sugar levels:

  • Eat more fruits and vegetables
  • Eat more foods high in fiber
  • Eat fewer refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, white rice, pastries, pancakes, and crackers
  • Eat fewer saturated fats, such as fatty cuts of beef, pork, and lamb, processed meats, butter and full-fat dairy
  • Eat fewer overall calories

You don’t have to entirely cut out foods high in saturated fats, but you should limit your consumption. Check labels and choose foods that have more unsaturated than saturated fats. 

Fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, herring, and trout are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and are a healthy addition to your diet.   

Get Moving

Fitness is an important aspect of managing type 2 diabetes. It can be walking, bike riding, or swimming laps, but the key is to find activities you enjoy and will keep doing. 

Just 30 minutes a day of exercise will, in time, decrease your blood sugar levels, increase your cardiovascular fitness, strengthen your bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power. Walking will also improve your mood especially if you walk in an area with some greenery or water.

Monitor Your Glucose         

Frequently check your blood sugar levels. Doing so can help you see which foods or activities trigger blood sugar highs or lows. Keep your food and activity consistent and test your blood sugar and look for patterns over 2 to 3 days. The goal is to find the insulin dose that keeps your blood sugar levels stable without causing a low.

Have regular A1c tests that will assess your average blood sugar level for the past 2-to-3 months.

Your blood sugar monitoring schedule is individual to you and should be set according to your needs and under the supervision of your doctor.

Connect with a Diabetes Care and Education Specialist

Diabetes care and education specialists are certified healthcare professionals with specialized knowledge in diabetes self-management and care. They will help you chart and then monitor the best diabetes healthcare course for your situation.

Visits to accredited diabetes education specialists are covered by most insurance plans and by Medicare Part B. You can locate an accredited diabetes education program by clicking here.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Saving Your Vision: Diabetic Retinopathy

November is National Diabetes Awareness month.

If you have diabetes, take a few minutes to learn about diabetic retinopathy and how you can take steps to help keep your eyes healthy.

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision impairment and blindness among working-age adults in the U.S. It occurs when high blood glucose levels damage the blood vessels at the back of the eye causing them to become weak and leaky and damage the retina.

If not found and treated early, diabetic retinopathy can cause permanent vision loss. That’s why it is important to manage your diabetes and stay alert to the early signs and symptoms of diabetic retinopathy.

Types of Diabetic Retinopathy

There are two main types of diabetic retinopathy—NPDR (non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy) and PDR (proliferative diabetic retinopathy). The “proliferative” refers to new blood vessel growth, so in non-proliferative, there is not yet new blood vessel growth.   

NPDR is the early stage of diabetic retinopathy. At this stage, high glucose levels have weakened the blood vessels and, in time, may cause bulges in the weakened vessels (microaneurysms) that may leak fluid into the retina and the leakage may swell the macula or some blood vessels may begin to close. So this is an ongoing disease cycle that can be slowed or stopped if caught early.

PDR is the more advanced stage of diabetic retinopathy. The NPDR has weakened the blood vessels or closed them, so new blood vessels have grown in an attempt to supply oxygen to the retina, but these new vessels are fragile, and they leak and damage the retina. 

PDR can lead to vitreous hemorrhage, traction retinal detachment, or neovascular glaucoma.

Stay Alert

Anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or women who have gestational diabetes during pregnancy, can develop diabetic retinopathy. The risk increases when blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels are not under control.

In the early stages diabetic retinopathy may not have symptoms, so it’s important to have a comprehensive dilated eye exam once a year. That way diabetic retinopathy can be diagnosed and treated before symptoms appear.   

Symptoms that indicate diabetic retinopathy has progressed are:

  • Blurry vision
  • Vision that goes from blurry to clear
  • Increased number of floaters
  • Poor night vision
  • Spots or blank areas in your central vision
  • Colors appear faded

Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment

The best treatment happens before you develop symptoms. Strict control of your blood sugar will significantly reduce your risk of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy. If you have high blood pressure and kidney problems, make sure those are kept under control too.

Injections in the eye of anti-VEGF medication can stop the growth of new blood vessels. VEGF stands for vascular endothelial growth factor, and it is a signal protein your body produces that stimulates new blood vessel formation, but the new vessels are weak and leaking vessels that damage your eyes, and anti-VEGF injections will stop that abnormal blood vessel growth.

Laser surgery and vitrectomy are other treatments for advanced PDR. But the most important thing to remember if you have diabetes, is that control of your blood sugar and early diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy are the best protections against vision loss.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us (877) 245.2020.

Nader Moinfar, M.D., M.P.H.
Retina Specialist
Orlando, FL

Jon Doe