People with diabetes are at high risk of eye complications, from minor to severe, reports the Diabetes Teaching Center at the University of California, San Francisco. A severe complication of diabetes is blindness; however, most eye disorders are minor. The center advises patients to receive regular screening and exams by an ophthalmologist, or eye doctor. People with diabetes are encouraged to control and stabilize blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels to avoid more serious complications.
Glaucoma
The American Diabetes Association points out that people with diabetes are 40 percent more likely to suffer from glaucoma than people without the disease. The risk of glaucoma increases the longer someone is diagnosed with diabetes, as well as with a person's age. A person diagnosed with glaucoma suffers from increased pressure in the eye, or intraocular pressure. The increased pressure damages the optic nerve, which carries signals from the eye to the brain. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, few symptoms of glaucoma are present during the early stages of the disease. Damage to the eye may already be occurring, however. The foundation encourages people with diabetes to visit an eye doctor annually for a pupil dilation exam.
Cataracts
The National Institutes of Health reports that people with diabetes risk being diagnosed with cataracts more than people without the disease--and often at a younger age. A cataract is characterized by clouding of the eye's clear lens. Vision is foggy or hazy. People with diabetes are prone to developing subcapsular or cortical cataracts. A subcapsular cataract forms at the back of the lens. A cortical cataract develops from the outer rim of the lens inward. The first symptoms of cataracts include blurred vision, light sensitivity and a decrease in color brightness. Subcapsular cataracts often show no signs or symptoms until the condition is well developed.
Retinopathy
Disorders affecting the eye's retina are classified as retinopathy, a general medical term. Light-sensitive tissue compromises the retina, which converts images into electric signals. The brain receives the signals via the optic nerve. The two types of retinopathy are nonproliferative and proliferative. Nonproliferative retinopathy occurs when the small blood vessels, or capillaries, in the back of the eye expand and form pouches. The ballooned blood vessels restrict blood flow; the more blocked vessels, the more severe the retinopathy. The Mayo Clinic reports that during the early stages of retinopathy, symptoms are often unobserved.
Retinopathy progresses and forms the more serious proliferative retinopathy, according to the American Diabetes Association. Active blood flow does not exist in current blood vessels. New, weaker vessels grow in the eye. The new vessels leak blood, causing blocked vision. Scar tissue grows in the eye, resulting in distortion or displacement of the retina. Possible additional symptoms are blurred and fluctuating vision, dark or blind spots in vision, poor color vision and blindness.
