The surgical management of diabetic retinopathy complications: An update

Abstract

Diabetic complications are known to be one of the leading causes of visual loss in the working age group in the developed world. The vitreous plays an important role in the development and progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and its complications. Despite the proper management of diabetics, complications due to disease progression necessitating diabetic vitrectomy occurs at a rate of 0.2% of people with diabetes. Vitrectomy has been used for the management of the complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy since 1970, since then, the continuing developments in instrumentations and techniques have greatly improved outcome and minimized complications. This article reviews the updates in vitrectomy for the management of diabetic retinopathy, including indications, outcome, instrumentations, techniques and complications. The Medline database was searched for all literatures using the words, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, vitrectomy, diabetic macular edema, and vitreolysis.