What are Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy?
Diabetes is a disease that prevents your body from making or using insulin to break down sugar in your bloodstream. Approximately 16 million people in America (308,000 in Washington State) have diabetes, with an estimated one third of them unaware of it. Of those cases that are diagnosed, between 40 and 45 percent have some degree of diabetic retinopathy, a potentially blinding eye disease that is a complication of diabetes.

Diabetes can cause many eye complications, including changes in nearsightedness, farsightedness and premature presbyopia. It can also result in cataracts, glaucoma, strabismus and decreased corneal sensitivity. The most serious complication is diabetic retinopathy. This condition is caused by weakened blood vessels that nourish the eye's retina, the delicate, light sensitive lining of the back of the eye. These blood vessels may begin to leak, swell or develop abnormal, brush-like branches called neovascularization.

Vision loss results from excessive fluid leakage, scar tissue associated with neovascularization, loss of adequate blood supply to retinal tissue, or a combination of these factors.

The photos show progressive damage to the eye’s blood vessels caused by diabetic retinopathy.