VIDEO: Stage of diabetic eye disease influences treatment approach

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There are various kinds of treatment for diabetic eye disease. It all depends on how early we see our patients. Some of the patients come to us at a very early stage. Some patients come to us at a very advanced stage. And diabetic eye diseases are usually divided into various classes such as mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy to a very advanced stage that is proliferative diabetic retinopathy with detachment. For the earlier stage, we do not intervene unless there is any macular edema. And if there is macular edema, we tend to do laser treatment or injection, and injections are considered as the primary choice of treatment. But in some cases, we had to also add the laser as well. And if the disease is advancing, say that there is a formation of abnormal new vessels, in those cases, we will be doing either injections to suppress these new vessels, or we will be doing laser to control the neovascularization. Many times, the patient presents to us with vitreous hemorrhage or retinal detachment. In those cases, we tend to do surgery and try to fix the problem, put the retina back, do the laser and depending upon the situation of the retina, we decide whether we need to use any tamponade agent or not.