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What is diabetic retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes and is one of the leading causes of blindness in working-age adults around the world.
It occurs when diabetes damages the small blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing nerve layer at the back of the eye.
It causes retina damage and vision loss in people who has either type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes, with a higher risk in those with long standing diabetes.
Diabetic retinopathy often has no early warning signs and the sight may not be affected until the condition becomes severe.
As the disease progresses, symptoms may include:
- Loss of central vision when reading or driving
- Loss of the ability to see colour and
- Mild blurring vision
In most cases treatment will consist of laser surgery as it can prevent significant vision loss associated with the condition. While in other cases, medicines may be injected into the eye to control swelling or new vessel growth.
Other surgical procedures such as vitrectomy may be required in advanced cases where there is bleeding in the eye, scar tissue formation and retinal detachment. Surgery is usually the last resort to save vision.
While diabetic retinopathy cannot be completely prevented, vision loss can be prevented with early detection.
It is thus important for diabetics to go for yearly eye checks even if they experience none of the above symptoms. Your doctor can diagnose diabetic retinopathy by examining your eyes and taking a photo of the back of your eye.
In conjunction with World Diabetes Day (14 Nov 2026), Associate Professor Danny Cheung, Senior Consultant with the Cataract and Comprehensive Ophthalmology and Surgical Retina Departments at Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), a member of the SingHealth group, answers your questions on the causes, symptoms and treatment of diabetic retinopathy in this Q&A.
About Assoc Prof Danny Cheung
Associate Professor Danny Cheung is a Senior Consultant ophthalmologist with the Cataract and Comprehensive Ophthalmology and Surgical Retina Departments at the Singapore National Eye Centre.
He specialises in the management of cataract as well as both medical and surgical retinal conditions. He is also a Senior Faculty and Associate Professor with the SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Program.
Assoc Prof Cheung is also a clinician-scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), with strong interests in retinal research and an excellent academic track record in the fields of ophthalmic epidemiology, retinal imaging, diabetic retinopathy and surgical retinal diseases.
He is currently a leading investigator for a number of major eye studies in Singapore, and is also involved in clinical and laboratory studies on novel therapeutic targets for other common sight-threatening retinal diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and retinal vein occlusion.
His research work has received national and international recognitions with several prestigious awards.
Assoc Prof Cheung also highly values quality in patient care, education and research. He is an experienced cataract and retinal surgeon. He truly cherishes his time with all his patients and considers a real privilege to be able to provide them with patient-centred and evidence-based eye care in a compassionate manner.
He also devotes considerable time and passion in conducting translational eye research that aims to bring new scientific discoveries to clinical application, with an ultimate goal to improve treatment and outcome of many sight-threatening eye diseases.