Is itchy eyes a complication of diabetes?

Diabetes itself can cause great distress to patients, and diabetes is also accompanied by some complications, such as eye diseases. Diabetic patients are prone to various eye diseases, milder ones can cause eye discomfort, such as itchy eyes, while more severe ones can cause blindness. Therefore, diabetic patients should pay attention to eye diseases, and it is best to seek medical advice even if the eyes are just itchy.

1. Why do diabetes patients have itchy eyes?

1. Conjunctiva: There are dark red dot-like microaneurysms on the bulbar conjunctiva of the palpebral fissure, with tortuous veins, cystic dilation, uneven blood columns, and spiral capillaries.

2. Lens. High blood sugar can cause swelling and degeneration of lens fibers. Initially, countless scattered, grayish-white, snowflake-like or punctate opacities will appear in the cortical area under the anterior and posterior capsules of the lens. The lens may become completely cloudy over days, weeks, or months.

3. The retina is one of the most dangerous diabetic eye diseases: there may be no conscious eye symptoms in the early stages, but as the disease progresses, vision may decrease, and retinal microaneurysms, hemorrhages, and exudations may occur. When small blood vessels rupture and bleed into the vitreous, if the amount is small, there will be a dark shadow in front of the eyes. When a large amount of bleeding enters the vitreous, vision may be severely reduced, and the patient may only have light perception.

4. Ocular nerves: diabetes can cause ischemic optic neuropathy, extraocular muscle paralysis, accommodation disorders and optic nerve atrophy.

5. Refractive error. Increased blood sugar can cause a decrease in aqueous humor osmotic pressure, causing the aqueous humor to seep into the lens, changing the refractive power of the lens and causing myopia. When blood sugar decreases, the osmotic pressure of the aqueous humor increases, water in the lens leaks out, and relative hyperopia occurs.

2. Some early symptoms of diabetic eye disease

Cataracts are common among the early symptoms of diabetic eye disease. Cataracts in diabetic patients can be divided into two categories: true diabetic eye disease symptoms and senile diabetic eye disease symptoms. The main symptoms are decreased vision, blurred vision, a constant feeling of a layer of fog in front of the eyes that does not go away after rubbing the eyes, and a feeling that sunlight and lights are particularly dazzling. Symptoms of diabetic eye disease: rapid changes in blood sugar concentration can cause temporary refractive changes. Myopia is prone to occur when blood sugar is high, and hypoglycemia may cause blurred vision, inability to concentrate or difficulty seeing small print. After controlling blood sugar, vision will gradually recover.

The symptoms of diabetic eye disease must be firmly understood, and early symptoms of diabetic eye disease must be treated promptly. Diabetic patients with obvious stinging, red eyes, photophobia and tearing often have keratitis; those with eye swelling and pain and headaches on the same side should consider glaucoma; those with pain when moving the eyeball and decreased vision are more likely to have optic neuropathy. Early symptoms of diabetic eye disease may include red eyes, eye pain, decreased vision and moving dark shadows. Early detection of symptoms of diabetic eye disease can lead to early treatment of the disease and prevent it from getting worse.

The most common early symptom of diabetic eye disease is acute conjunctivitis, which is often accompanied by increased secretions, foreign body sensation, burning sensation, etc., but no obvious irritation symptoms such as eye pain. The second is keratitis, which is often accompanied by irritation symptoms such as eye pain, photophobia, tearing, and decreased vision. Decreased vision in diabetic patients and progressive vision loss in adolescents are often considered to be refractive errors, which can be confirmed by eye examination and glasses.