Is your vision impaired due to diabetes? Let's learn about Diabetic Macular Edema and Eylea treatment

If you have diabetes , you may sometimes feel a little worried or anxious about your eyesight , right? Do you also feel like "I can't see as clearly as I used to", "Things are blurry", or "I have black spots floating in front of my eyes"? In fact, glaucoma is a disease that can affect both of our eyes. But don't worry, there are now very advanced treatments for this. So today we're talking about the damage that diabetes can cause to the eyes and the special injection treatment called Eylea that is used for it.

Why does diabetes affect the eyes? What happens with the Eylea vaccine?

Simply put, when a person with diabetes has high, uncontrolled blood sugar levels for a long time, it damages the very delicate blood vessels inside the eye. This damage causes fluid and blood to leak out of those blood vessels . This condition is called diabetic retinopathy .

Here, the retina is the most important part inside the eye that records the images of what we see, just like the film in a camera.

As the condition worsens, new, but much weaker, unstable blood vessels begin to form in place of the damaged ones. These cause even more blood and fluid to leak out.

So what is macular edema?

In our retina, right in the middle, there is a special place that gives us the clearest and sharpest vision when we look straight ahead. It is called the macula . As mentioned earlier, when fluid leaks from the blood vessels, that fluid accumulates in this place called the macula and it swells. That is what we call Diabetic Macular Edema .

This swelling can cause you to experience symptoms like:

• Blurred vision
• Double vision
• Feeling like black spots are floating in front of the eyes (Floaters)
• Colors are not seen clearly, vision is dim.

How does the Eylea vaccine work?

This is where vaccines like Eylea come in. It involves injecting an injection directly into the eye. The active drug in this is aflibercept .

There are two chemicals that mainly affect the formation of weak, new blood vessels inside our eyes and the leakage of fluid from them. They are VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) and PlGF (Placental Growth Factor) .

The Eylea injection blocks both of these chemicals. This reduces the formation of new blood vessels and the leakage of fluid. This reduces the swelling in the macula, allows your vision to return to normal, and stops it from getting worse.

How effective is this treatment?

Two clinical trials to test the effectiveness of this drug involved patients with diabetic macular edema. One group received the Eylea injection, while the other group underwent a laser procedure commonly used at the time (macular laser photocoagulation) .

At the end of the trial, the vision of those who received the Eylea vaccine improved significantly more than those who received the laser treatment. This improvement was maintained after a year and almost three years. This means that this treatment not only improves vision, but also helps maintain that improvement over time.

How do I get this treatment?

Eylea is a medicine that comes in a liquid form. It is an injection that is injected directly into your eye by an eye specialist . We call this injection method Intravitreal Injection .

There is no reason to be afraid of this. This is something that is done with great control and caution.

1. First, a small device is used to keep your eye open.

2. Then, a few eye drops are put into the eye to relieve the itching and prevent bacterial infections.

3. Before injecting the vaccine, you can also wash the eye thoroughly with an antiseptic solution.

4. Then the injection is given with a very fine needle.

Usually, when you start treatment, you will receive the vaccine every 4 weeks . After a few months, your doctor may adjust the frequency to every 8 weeks, depending on your condition.

How soon can I see results?

If the Eylea vaccine works for you, you will start to notice a small improvement in your vision within a few weeks of the first injection . Your vision may improve further if you receive the vaccine every 4 weeks for the first 5 months.

The most important thing is to keep all appointments and get all the vaccinations you need. If you have to miss an appointment, call your doctor immediately and reschedule.

Let's be aware of the side effects.

Like any medication, the Eylea vaccine has both minor and serious side effects. It's important to know the difference between the two.

These are not all possible side effects. If you have any symptoms that worry you, talk to your doctor about them. If you think you may have had a side effect from this medicine, you can also report it to the National Poisons Information Centre at the National Hospital in Colombo .

Are there any problems with other medications?

There are no known serious interactions between Eylea and other medications. However, it is important to tell your eye doctor about any medications you are taking—including prescription medications, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and even herbal medications .