Comprehensive Eye & Vision care

For Patients of All Ages in Charleston

The Stages of Retinopathy

new-bg-blue-2-59cabc8987871

Affordable eye care is available in South Carolina. Crescent Eye Care in Charleston offers world-class eye care for affordable prices. We are fully committed to keeping the families in our area seeing clearly and without discomfort.

In our last blog, we explored the basics of diabetic retinopathy, including basic symptoms. Basically, it is the abnormal growth of blood vessels in the retina, and it causes lasting damage to your sight. We discussed the term “proliferative” and how it refers to rapid growth of tissue or cells.

In this blog, we are going to describe the terms you will most likely hear your eye doctor use.

  • Mild non-proliferative retinopathy
    • This is the early stage of the condition. All that happens is balloon-like swelling happens in small areas of the retina’s blood vessels.
  • Moderate non-proliferative retinopathy
    • In this next stage, some of the blood vessels supplying the retina get blocked.
  • Severe non-proliferative retinopathy
    • The blood supply to the retina decreases drastically as a lot more blood vessels get blocked. The damaged retina has to signal the body to produce more blood vessels.
  • Proliferative retinopathy
    • The signals for new blood vessels cause new vessels to proliferate in the retina and the gel that fills the inside of the eye (vitreous). These are abnormal blood vessels, so they rupture and bleed into the retina and vitreous. The ruptures can cause scar tissue that tugs at the retina, causing more damage or even detaching it.

Contact Crescent Eye Care today; we are here to help!