Purpose:

To identify the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in diabetic patients of a screening program of the Hospital San Vicente Fundación in Medellin (Colombia), to describe the sociodemographic characteristics and the type of diabetic retinopathy and to evaluate the percentage of patients with sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy.

Method:

This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, in which diabetic patients of all ages and both genders were evaluated in the “No more blind from diabetes” campaign of the Hospital San Vicente Fundación in Medellín, conducted in the year 2018.

Results:

We evaluated 610 diabetic patients from the 2018 campaign. Most of the patients had type 2 diabetes, in total 528 (74.8%). Of the patients evaluated, retinopathy was found in 115 cases, for a prevalence of 18.8%. Proliferative retinopathy was found in 17 (14.7%) patients, and non-proliferative retinopathy was the most frequent in 98 patients (85.2%). The subgroup of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy was made up of 48 (7.8%) patients, of which the diagnosis had not been made previously in 7 (14.5%) cases.

Conclusions:

The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in the population studied is comparable with some of the studies carried out in some Latin American countries. This work provides relevant local epidemiological data about diabetic retinopathy and reinforces the importance of continuing screening campaigns to prevent cases of blindness with early diagnosis and treatment.