Stressing the need for awareness on retina-related issues, All India Ophthalmological Society president-elect Dr. S. Natarajan said that the number of diabetic retinopathy (a serious eye condition that can lead to decreased eyesight or even blindness) cases is going up lately in the country. Dr. Natarajan was speaking at the XI Annual Continuous Medical Education on retina vitreous, Retina-2018, organised by the Aravinda Retina Vitreous Institute (ARVI) and the Vijayawada Academy of Ophthalmology here on Sunday.“Diagnosing diabetic retinopathy in early stages will help doctors cure the complication and avoid loss of sight. However, many are failing to get the complication identified in the early stage and are approaching doctors only beyond repairable time,” he said. In order to avoid such situations, people, particularly diabetics, need to be aware of the symptoms and the care retina needed, he said.
Dr. G.V. Ravindra of ARVI said people having long-term diabetes were prone to diabetic retinopathy.
“Unfortunately, they are ignoring eye care leading to complications. Every diabetic should undergo eye test once in six months,” said Dr. Ravindra. Dr. Ravindra said premature babies are also prone to retina issues and every such baby should undergo retina test 45 days after birth. AP Ophthalmologic Society secretary V. Sambasiva Rao said over 300 ophthalmologists, medical students and others took part in the programme. Renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Lalit Verma (New Delhi), Dr. Kim Ramaswamy (Madurai), Dr. Mahesh P. Shanmugam (Bengaluru), Dr. Manoj Khatri (Chennai), Dr. Mallika Goyal (Hyderabad) took part in the programme.