Intensive Diabetes Therapy and Ocular Surgery in Type 1 Diabetes

Retinopathy, a common microvascular complication of type 1 diabetes, can lead to vision loss. Follow-up data from two studies show that intensive therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes was associated with a substantially reduced long-term risk of ocular surgery. Retinopathy, a common microvascular complication of type 1 diabetes, is a leading cause of vision loss worldwide. 1 In the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), 2 6.5 years of intensive therapy aimed at achieving glycemia as close to the nondiabetic range as safely possible, as compared with conventional therapy at the time, was associated with a 76% reduction in the onset of retinopathy and a 52% reduction in disease progression. In the subsequent long-term observational follow-up, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study, 3 the patients in the intensive-therapy group had a durable reduction in progression of microvascular and macrovascular . . .