Hypertensive Retinopathy Vs Diabetic Retinopathy: Know the Difference and Treatment
Retinopathy is an eye condition where the retina gets damaged. The retina is the part of the eye that sends signals to the brain to view objects. However, when the retina gets impaired, people can suffer from low vision or vision loss. Prominently, there are two types of retinopathy. One is Diabetic Retinopathy and the second one is Hypertensive Retinopathy. In both the conditions, the strain occurs on the eyes and hence, leads to a damaged retina.
Hypertensive Retinopathy
As the name suggests, this condition occurs due to hypertension or high blood pressure. High blood pressure not only has a lot of adverse effects on your overall health, but it can put a strain on your eyes. When blood pressure rises, it puts pressure on blood vessels which in turn can lead to nerve damage in the eye.
Treatment of Hypertensive Retinopathy
The only way to treat and prevent hypertensive retinopathy is by controlling blood pressure. It can be done by making some lifestyle changes like adding fruits to diet, regular exercise, limiting coffee, tea, and aerated drinks, controlling the weight, and quitting smoking and alcohol. You can also visit a doctor who might prescribe you medicines for high blood pressure. If you won’t control your blood pressure, then it can lead to irreversible eye damage and permanent vision loss.
Diabetic Retinopathy
The condition only occurs in people with diabetes. If you have a high blood sugar level, then it can block the blood vessels of the eye. It will lead to bleeding. To reverse the condition, the eyes will start developing new blood vessels which are tender, and again the high sugar will make them bleed. This will firstly block the vision and you will start seeing dark patches. However, if left untreated, it can lead to blindness.
Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy
In the early stage, you may not see any symptoms but with a yearly dilated eye examination, the condition can be diagnosed early. At an early stage, it can be treated without any surgery by only controlling the blood sugar. At a later stage, doctors may treat it using Anti-VEGF injections, Laser Treatment or Vitrectomy. Anti-VEGF Injections block the protein VEGF, which causes the blood vessel damage from producing. Hence, preventing the symptoms from growing. Laser and Vitrectomy are surgeries of the eye that will try to recover the damaged retina.