Glossary

Diabetes

A person suffering from diabetes is at a greater risk of developing primary open angle glaucoma than a member of the general population. For this reason it is important to include all three glaucoma tests as part of the routine eye examinations undergone by diabetic patients which otherwise may only concentrate on diabetic eye disease such as diabetic retinopathy. This is not to say that diabetic retinopathy is not a more important risk to sight than glaucoma in people with diabetes, rather it is to highlight the importance of a comprehensive eye examination.

Severe diabetes (poorly controlled diabetes) increases the risk of developing neovascular glaucoma (rubeotic glaucoma).

If you already have glaucoma and then develop diabetes, you shoudl inform both your ophthalmologist and your diabetologist respectively of the diabetes and glaucoma as the treatment of each can be affected by that of the other.