The purpose of the study is to evaluate the prevalence and severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) among all diabetic patients presenting to a tertiary eye care center in Nepal over a 3-year period.
This was a retrospective review of all clinical records from the initial presentations of diabetic patients at the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO) from 2012 to 2014.
In total, 8855 patients were identified who presented to TIO with a prior diagnosis of diabetic mellitus (DM) during the study period. DR was found in 1714 patients (19.4%) at the time of initial presentation, 1305 (14.7%) of which had nonproliferative DR (PDR), while 617 (6.9%) demonstrated diabetic macular edema (DME) and 409 (4.6%) demonstrated PDR. Of the 1714 patients with DR, 825 (48.1%) required treatment at initial presentation for DME and/or PDR. Male gender, hypertension, age at presentation, and interval from diagnosis of DM to initial eye consultation were significantly associated with the presence of DR ( < 0.05).
The prevalence of DR among patients with DM was 19.4%, which is lower than previously published estimates. However, among patients diagnosed with DR, over half presented with a vision-threatening complication warranting some measure of initial treatment.

Copyright: © 2020 Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology.

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