Systemic Disease and the Eye

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is an important cause of blindness: about 1000 people are registered blind from diabetes per year in the United Kingdom. Most of these patients are elderly, but diabetes is the commonest cause of blindness in young people in this country. The management of diabetic eye disease has improved greatly over the past 10 years so that much of this blindness can now be prevented. In spite of this, most general practitioners are aware of tragic cases of rapidly progressive blindness in young diabetics. The more serious manifestations of diabetes in the eye tend to affect patients in the prime of life. The tragedy is even greater when one considers that this blindness is largely avoidable.