The One Seoul Eye Clinic is located in Sinsa Square near Sinsa Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Our ophthalmology specialists provide care for retinal disease, glaucoma, cataract and presbyopia, vision correction (LASIK, LASEK, implantable lenses), pediatric myopia, and dry eye. We are about 307m from Exit 6 of Sinsa Station on the Sinbundang Line.
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication that occurs in most diabetic patients, referring to a disease where circulatory disorders occur in the peripheral blood vessels of the retina due to damage to capillaries caused by high blood sugar. In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, there may be no noticeable symptoms, making it difficult to recognize the disease, and if left untreated or if the appropriate treatment timing is missed, it can lead to blindness. Therefore, it is important for diabetic patients to undergo regular eye examinations even if there are no ophthalmological symptoms.
Types of diabetic retinopathy are classified into proliferative diabetic retinopathy and non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy based on whether neovascularization occurs that breaks through the retinal boundary membrane.
Diabetic retinopathy symptoms may not show any special symptoms in the early stages before the retina is severely damaged. If symptoms appear, it means retinal damage has progressed to some extent, so there are many cases where treatment timing is missed, making regular eye examinations important. Diabetic retinopathy shows symptoms such as vision loss, floaters, color vision abnormalities where colors cannot be clearly distinguished or appear dim, photopsia, and night blindness.
Vision becomes blurred.
Especially difficult in daily life at night.
Photopsia appears with flashing lights when blinking.
Floaters appear as small threads in the visual field.
For patients with underlying diabetes, it is recommended to have an eye examination at least once a year, and thorough blood sugar control and management of blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and kidney function are necessary. If diabetic retinopathy occurs, examination is needed every 2-4 months for severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Diagnostic methods: Fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, optical coherence tomography, etc.
The One Seoul Eye Clinic has introduced a wide-angle fundus camera to check all retinal changes at a glance for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis, and has also introduced an optical coherence tomography machine that visualizes retinal layers non-invasively and in high resolution, enabling more accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Neovascularization seen in wide-angle fluorescein angiography
Macular edema seen in optical coherence tomography
In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, conservative treatment is necessary to manage diabetes through efforts to control blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids, and to periodically observe the course.
Antibody injection therapy, which injects antibodies that prevent the generation of neovascularization into the eye, can delay the onset of the disease and even expect vision recovery. However, if capillaries are already severely destroyed, panretinal photocoagulation can be performed by irradiating laser to the peripheral retina to suppress neovascularization generation, and if neovascularization proliferates to the iris, vitrectomy can be performed to remove the cloudy vitreous and neovascularization. When treating diabetic retinopathy, combining ophthalmological treatment with internal medicine treatment can increase treatment effectiveness.
Before Treatment
Appearance with vitreous hemorrhage
After Treatment
Appearance with resolved vitreous hemorrhage
The One Seoul Eye Clinic can perform various intravitreal injections as well as vitrectomy considering the clinical characteristics and lesion patterns of diabetic retinopathy, and for laser treatment, treatment with reduced pain/side effects is possible using Pascal laser, which is only available in some general hospitals.
The prevention method for diabetic retinopathy is to control blood sugar and maintain blood pressure at normal levels. People with diabetes should have an eye examination every year to detect retinopathy and start necessary treatment early. Pregnant women with diabetes need to be examined about every 3 months.
