Sometimes people with advanced stages of diabetes will have new blood vessels grow over the retina along with fibrosis or scar tissue. This scar tissue can pull your retina away from your eye wall, causing a retinal detachment – a serious condition that can lead to blindness if left untreated.
If you are living with diabetes, you have a much greater risk of losing your vision than people without diabetes. To help reduce the chance of serious eye disease, please make annual diabetic eye exams a part of your routine medical care. Eye doctors can detect signs of diabetes in your eyes sometimes long before you even notice any visual symptoms. This early detection and treatment can be essential in preventing further vision loss.
In certain cases, special testing called fluorescein angiography may be arranged to help determine if you need diabetic retinopathy treatment. During this test, special dye is injected into your body, and the blood flow in the retina is photographed as the dye travels through. A fluorescein angiogram also will tell your doctor how much the disease has advanced so they can determine the appropriate treatment for this disease.