Diabetic Retinopathy: A Further Study of Prognosis for Vision

Abstract

Prognosis for vision has been studied in 135 patients with diabetic retinopathy and good vision and compared with that in 228 diabetics without retinopathy similarly studied. The risk of “blindness” in diabetics with retinopathy whose diabetes was diagnosed under the age of sixty was 3 per cent in five years, and 20 per cent in those diagnosed over that age. The risk of “visual impairment” also increases with age at diagnosis. Fifty per cent of a small group of diabetics with “malignant retinopathy” were “blind” in five years, and only 14 per cent preserved good vision. One third of forty-six diabetics had good vision in one eye one year and four years after their first vitreous hemorrhage. One third had “impaired vision”, and one third were “blind”.