Diabetes (diabetes) is a disease that develops as a result of the pancreas not secreting enough insulin. Diabetes is a disease that can be seen in children and adults
.
How Does Diabetes Affect the Eye?
Diabetes mellitus in people with diabetes eye problems that may occur as a complication of
diabetic eye disease. The retina is the light-sensitive layer and must be healthy for visual function. Different types of damage occur in diabetic
retinopathy. The structure of the blood vessels deteriorates and small bubbles are formed and these bubbles cause bleeding and leakage of the fluid in the vessel into the surrounding tissues. In the later stages, unwanted new vessel buds form on the retina and cause sudden intraocular bleeding.
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most important and preventable causes of blindness today. It occurs as a result of changes in retinal blood vessels.
What are the Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is an insidious disease. In the early stages of the disease, there are no symptoms, moreover, diabetic retinopathy is a painless disease. Therefore, there is no such thing as diabetic retinopathy in a diabetic patient who does not have any visual complaints, and eye control is required at regular intervals.
Diabetes usually affects both eyes. If the accumulation of fluid, called macular edema, occurs in the visual center called the macula, blurring of vision begins. If unwanted new and diseased vascularization begins in the retina in the advanced stage, these vessels may suddenly bleed and vision may suddenly be lost.
Eye Diabetes Symptoms
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes All people with diabetes are at risk for diabetic retinopathy. Every diabetic patient should have their pupil dilated at least once a year. must undergo a thorough retinal scan. The longer they have had diabetes, the greater the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. Factors that increase the risk of this situation are as follows:
- The duration of diabetes,
- High blood sugar level,
- High blood pressure,
- Family history, smoking.
If you have diabetes, you should have a detailed retinal examination at least once a year.
Even without any loss of vision in a person with diabetes Advanced diabetic retinopathy may develop over the years.
Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment
Most cases are followed up. However, a certain group of patients are treated to preserve vision. You can check our page on Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment on the subject
.
Laser Therapy: It is a method that stops bleeding in the veins. With small laser pulses, edematous and bleeding vessels are blocked. In the outer parts of the retina, efforts are made to prevent new vessel formations by means of laser. In such cases, vitrectomy is performed. This is a special type of surgical intervention performed under the microscope.
Regulating blood sugar can prevent or slow down the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy. Apart from that, it can prevent or slow down kidney and nerve damage. In addition, diet and exercise also play an important role in the general health of these
patients.
KERATOCONUS
What is Keratoconus?
Keratoconus is a progressive disease with genetic inheritance characterized by the forward tapering of the transparent tissue in front of the eye. It is a tissue that provides a certain curvature in order to fulfill this function. is within certain limits. Keratoconus discomfort should be considered in extremely steep corneas above these limits. It is known to be
. It is thought that the weakening of the corneal tissue in these individuals with genetic predisposition may be due to the imbalance of some enzymes in the cornea. The disease occurs in people to whom it is predisposed.
Is There a Risk of Progression of Keratoconus Disease?
The disease usually occurs at the age of 10, but the person realizes the disease. It happens at later ages.
The disease has a progressive feature and usually progresses until the age of 40s. In the beginning, the family notices a continuous improvement in the number of myopia and astigmatism in the child's eyes due to the cornea tapering forward, they have to change the numbers every 6 months.
Over time, even with glasses, the vision begins to become inadequate. Most of these children have a history of allergic
conjunctivitis and complaints of itching. It is known that constantly scratching the eyes has a progressive effect on this disease.
This sharpening in the cornea is not an externally noticeable sharpness. However, over time, the disease progresses a lot and when there is a sudden blistering attack in the cornea, which we see in some patients, the sharpening of the eye becomes noticeable from the outside.
What are the Symptoms of Keratoconus?
The most important symptom is a constantly progressing spectacle trick. In the beginning, vision is provided in a healthy way with glasses, but over time, the person becomes blind even with glasses. In very rare mild types, vision with glasses may be sufficient until the end of life.
The most noticeable complaint of the person is the blurred vision. He cannot be comfortable with any glasses or standard soft contact lenses. In most of these patients, childhood allergic conjunctivitis and its associated I have complaints of itching, watering, redness. Rarely, in patients who are not noticed until advanced age, the patient may refer to a specialist with sudden blistering attack in the cornea.
How to Diagnose Keraoconus?
A routine eye examination When the physician sees a keratometry value that deviates from the normal and steepened in the patient's autorefractometer values, and especially if the family is talking about a progressive myopia or astigmatism of the child, the physician performs the necessary examination to examine the corneal map, which we call corneal topography, with the suspicion of keratoconus.
Corneal map is a diagnostic method in the diagnosis of keratoconus. Diagnosis is made by topography. In some cases at the early
stage, the term suspected keratoconus is used and the patient is kept under close follow-up.
In addition to topography, the patient's corneal thickness values are also measured.
Keratoconus Treatment
/>
The cornea has some tissue features that are tightly connected and clamped together. In keratoconus, these bonds are separated from each other and continue to separate. Due to the separation
the resistance of the cornea has decreased and it has become unable to maintain its natural curvature. The patient's cornea changes shape and tapers forward. As a result of this sharpening, an increase in myopia and astigmatism values occurs in the patient. The first purpose of the abortion treatment is to strengthen these ligaments and stop them from straightening forward.
If necessary, this treatment can be repeated several times at regular intervals. The second stage of treatment is aimed at improving the person's vision. In these patients, vision does not improve with glasses or standard soft lenses, because the problem here is due to the cornea tapering forward.
The sharpened cornea is somehow pressed inward and the cornea reaches the curvature it should be. For this, hard contact lenses or intracorneal ring treatment is applied. The purpose of both
is the same.
Hard contact lens has a rigid structure due to its material feature and flattening � It has the feature. Likewise, in the corneal ring treatment, the cornea is stretched from the sides like a pulley with the ring inserted into the cornea and it is tried to normalize the sharpness in the front. Again, the aim is to increase the patient's vision.
In the last stage, corneal transplantation is planned for patients whose vision cannot be increased by any method.
Can the Progression of the Disease Be Stopped? Crosslink Treatment
The treatment is applied in operating room conditions. The epithelium on the anterior surface of the cornea is scraped (or sometimes not) and riboflavin drops are instilled on the corneal surface for half an hour. This drop is dripped in order to strengthen the intra-corneal cross-links that deteriorate in keratoconus, and then with the applied blue UV light, the dripped riboflavin is fully clamped to the ligaments and the strengthening process is completed.
The treatment is applied to stop the disease or at least to slow its progression.< br />
The patient does not expect a difficult process after the treatment. There may be watering and stinging complaints on the first night of the treatment, other than that, the patient can continue with his daily life.
How is the Corneal Ring Treatment?
The aim of corneal ring treatment is to increase vision. is for. It is not possible to increase vision
if the anterior cornea is not pressed inward in a
manner and the cornea cannot be brought to its normal curvature. br /> they flatten. These rings, which are placed in the cornea, are placed in the preformed channels in the cornea.
After the channels are created, the rings of the appropriate thickness are placed in the channels in accordance with the previous calculations. The rings have a certain thickness and size that varies according to the level and stage of the disease. The size and thickness of the ring is determined by some special calculations made after topographical analyzes beforehand.
Read: 0
