All about diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes where one’s eye blood vessels are damaged and either stop functioning or grow abnormally. It can affect people with both type one and type two diabetes and is one of the leading causes of blindness.

There are two types of this disease — early diabetic retinopathy and advanced diabetic retinopathy. In the former, walls of the tiny blood vessels in the retina weaken, start leaking fluid and blood into the retina. In the latter, the damaged blood vessels close off, prompting growth of new but abnormal blood vessels which leak blood.