Diabetic Retinopathy
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Raphael E Rosenbaum, MD
Ophthalmologist & Uveitis Specialist located in Upper East Side, New York, NY; Borough Park, Brooklyn, NY; New Rochelle, NY; and Forest Hills, NY
Diabetes casts a wide net over your health, and your eyes are no exception. Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, and his team provide comprehensive diabetic eye care that addresses common issues like diabetic retinopathy. For expert management of your eye health in the face of diabetes, call one of the four New York locations in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New Rochelle, and Forest Hills, or set up an appointment using the online booking tool.
Diabetic Retinopathy Q & A
What is diabetic eye disease?
Diabetes is a systemic and chronic disease that can have a serious and cascading effect on your health, especially on your eyes. Diabetic eye disease includes many different conditions which develop either as a direct result of diabetes or place you more at risk for the following:
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Diabetic macular edema
- Glaucoma
- Cataracts
The first two conditions — retinopathy and macular edema — are direct results of diabetes.
What is diabetic retinopathy?
One of the areas of biggest concern is microvascular damage due to unregulated glucose levels in your blood, which when it occurs in your eyes is called diabetic retinopathy. With this condition, the blood vessels in your retina leak, and abnormal blood vessels can begin to develop, which causes scarring and vision impairment.
To distinguish between the stages of diabetic retinopathy, nonproliferative retinopathy means that new blood vessels aren’t growing yet. With proliferative retinopathy, abnormal blood vessels in your retina are already developing.
What are the signs of diabetic retinopathy?
Unfortunately, diabetic retinopathy doesn’t typically produce outward symptoms until you begin to notice a problem with your vision, which means the microvascular damage is advanced. During nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, you likely won’t notice that anything is wrong. When it becomes proliferative, you may begin to experience:
- Floaters in your vision
- Blurred vision
- Problems with color vision
- Increasing vision loss
Left unchecked, diabetic retinopathy can lead to complete vision loss as the damage to your retina and macula mounts, which is why early intervention and vigilant monitoring at the practice of Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, is imperative.
How is diabetic retinopathy treated?
The answer to this depends upon the stage of your diabetic retinopathy. Detected in its earlier, nonproliferative stages, there’s much the team can recommend to protect your vision, but it’s up to you to put these recommendations into action. The most important thing you can do if you’re developing diabetic retinopathy is to manage your diabetes well so that unregulated glucose levels don’t wreak more havoc.
If your retinopathy is more advanced, the team can turn to laser therapies and injections, such as Eylea®, Lucentis®, Avastin®, Ozurdex®, and Triesence®, depending upon the extent and location of the ocular damage.
Your best line of defense when it comes to diabetic retinopathy is to keep up with your regular visits at the practice of Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, to stay one step ahead of your eye health.
To learn more about diabetic care, please call one of the offices or schedule an appointment using the online booking feature.
