Research progress on combined therapy of traditional Chinese medicine with laser photocoagulation for treatment of diabetic retinopathy

Abstract:

Diabetic retinopathy(DR)is the most severe complication of diabetic eye disease, which can eventually lead to irreversible blindness, thus seriously impacting on patients' quality of life. At present, surgical operation has been widely carried out on the treatment of DR in China. For the pre proliferative DR(PDR)and PDR, panretinal photocoagulation has often been adopted. By damaging the retina in ischemic area so as to reduce oxygen demand, the neovascularization can be prevented and the patient's condition can be stopped from getting worse. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)has an abundant and personalized therapeutic regimen for the treatment of DR. This paper reviews the research progress on combined therapy of TCM with laser photocoagulation for treatment of DR.