Saving Sight with Light: Treatment for Diabetic Eye Disease.

The World Health Organization regards diabetes as a global epidemic and estimates that there are 422 million people living with the condition. Diabetic Retinopathy is a serious sight threatening complication of diabetes. Two thirds of Type 2 and nearly all Type 1 within 20 years of their initial diabetes diagnosis develop the condition and it is a major cause of world blindness. Current treatments involve expensive and invasive injections of drugs directly into the eyeball and place a huge treatment burden on patients, carers, clinicians and national healthcare budgets. As a result, current treatments are not used in the early stages of eyesight deterioration, rather they are withheld until oedema levels are significant and serious vision loss has already occurred. In most countries, outside of the West, intraocular injections are simply not affordable, and many patients go blind from diabetes.The solution is the Noctura 400 Sleep Mask, a highly effective, low cost, safe and non-invasive home use device which is a CE certified medical device which delivers a low level of light through closed eyelids during sleep and manages the oxygen demand of the retina. This avoids nocturnal hypoxia which is a known driver of diabetic retinopathy. Recent clinical evaluations undertaken in the UK by the NHS resulted in 96% of patients seeing clinical improvement. Of the patients expected to receive injections within 12-months, none progressed to the point of requiring injections. The visual acuity in 98% of eyes was improved, some up to 15 letters. Follow up studies have shown that patients who still using the mask 3 years on have still not progressed to injections.