DME treatment plan should be customized for each patient

It is estimated that 8.3% of the U.S. population has diabetes, or about 26 million people. For these patients, diabetic macular edema is the most common cause of visual loss and can occur in association with both nonproliferative and proliferative diabetic retinopathy.While the numbers vary from one source to another, by 10 years after diagnosis, at least 10% of patients with diabetes will manifest clinically significant DME, resulting in visual acuity of less than 20/40. Many more, as high as 30% in some sources, may manifest some edema on OCT or fluorescein angiography. We must always remember that careful glucose control, treatment of hypertension, cessation of smoking and reduction of obesity are important baseline treatments that can be reinforced by the ophthalmologist for all patients with diabetes.