Diabetes - The major cause of blindness in the United States today.

Diabetic retinopathy, a major complication of diabetes mellitus, affects the retina in two major ways:

• Diabetic macular edema - the macula becomes swollen from blood vessels that leak and bleed into the macula, causing decreased visual acuity.
  
  
• Proliferative diabetic retinopathy - abnormal new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina which can bleed and cause tractional retinal detachments.

The conventional treatment for the above conditions is laser surgery. For diabetic macular edema, it is focal laser treatment in which the laser is placed precisely on the blood vessels that are leaking. For proliferative diabetic retinopathy, it is panretinal photocoagulation, where spots are placed all around the eye.

A new treatment has been proven effective in the management of ischemic diabetic retinopathy - Intravitreal AVASTIN. Please see the What's New section to read more about the use of AVASTIN in the treatment of diabetic eye disease.

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