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Diabetic Macular Oedema (DMO)

What is this?
DMO is a disorder involving the centre of the retina which is used for sharp vision. Blood vessels damaged by diabetes become ‘leaky’ and ‘fluid’ builds up around and in the retinal cells causing swelling in the retina. This does not always cause problems for vision but if it does, treatment is recommended.

The risk of DMO increases with:

  1. Length of time you have been diabetic.
  2. Poorly controlled diabetes 
  3. High blood pressure 
  4. High cholesterol 
  5. Smoking 
  6. Pregnancy 

It is very important to ensure that your diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol are as well controlled as possible and that you do not smoke. We will advise you to see your GP or diabetes specialist to check all of these factors.

Treatments
In mild cases which are not affecting vision, we would advise monitoring closely and ensuring that all the factors discussed above are well controlled. In some cases for example of uncontrolled blood pressure, the DMO can resolve with improved control which may require different medication and life-style changes.

If vision is affected, there are different treatments we may suggest:

  1. Retinal laser treatment – this can slow the leakage of fluid but may not improve vision. It is useful in some cases to stop vision from getting worse.
  2. Eye injections – this may involve a number of different drugs given by a quick injection. 
  • Avastin
  • Eylea
  • Lucentis
  • Ozurdex
  • Iluvien

Laser treatment and injections may be used together in some cases.

  • Thank you so much for the professional and friendly manner with which you dealt with my eye problem.
    The procedure on Thursday went extremely well and I just wanted you to know everything has been fine since – in fact when I removed the dressing my wife said my eye looked ‘amazing’ (NB – that’s the eye she was referring to rather than me!)

  • Dear Mr Walker, with much gratitude for the emergency surgery in September. Hope you get the opportunity to enjoy a G&T..

  • Dear Dr Walker, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. I am grateful for the kind reassurance you gave me before my cataract operation in November. Thanks to your specialist skills I’m confident I will be fully recovered soon. I’m feeling better already! All the best, yours sincerely..

  • Dear Sir, many many thanks to you and your team for the best Christmas gift I have ever received. The restoration of wonderful distance vision in my left eye after cataract surgery, yours in eternal gratitude.

  • Dear Dr Walker, Thank you so much for restoring colour in my life. Your skills are amazing and the care I have received from your nursing staff is very much appreciated

  • Dear Mr Walker, words cannot convey my gratitude to you for putting my world right this morning. You were right, if we put our wants before our needs, we will not have the right treatment that is required for our health. I hope you don’t mind me quoting this when a family or friend get stressed about a medical (or not) procedure that clashes with their life. Nevertheless I am glad the surgery went well as you said, and the bonus I do not have to change my travel plans. For that I am sincerely grateful.

  • Dear Mr Walker, I just wanted to say a personal thank you to you for your kindness, care and reassurance when I was treated by you for the detached retina operation earlier this month. It was an extremely scary time for me which you quickly recognised, so your understanding, as of that of your whole team, is something I feel particularly grateful for. Please accept my sincerest wishes and thanks again.

  • Dear Mr Walker, I would like to thank you and all your colleagues who set time aside to treat me beyond their other commitments to treat me so promptly and so efficiently when I came to the Vitreo retinol clinic on Monday for what might have been merely a routine appointment. I feel extraordinarily fortunate that I was able to be seen immediately in the emergency clinic and to be found a slot for the same day in time for me to get home to Oxfordshire that evening. I should be greatful if you could extend my thanks to your colleagues who helped facilitate this. All the nurses and other staff I encountered were extremely helpful. I feel very privileged to have received such kind and expert treatment in a world reknowned eye hospital.