The overall incidence rate of registered blindness for Kuwait is less than in many other national registries. The marked prevalence of the male gender in all age subgroups is specific for Kuwait. The rates of the leading causes of registered blindness reflect the prevalence of the younger subgroups in our registry. Additional data on co-morbidity and dedicated efforts to reveal unrecognized and unregistered blindness, particularly among females, will overcome the limitations of the registry, and will serve to outline the tendencies in avoidable vision loss and monitor the efficacy of the prevention programs in the future.

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Prevalence of diabetes is rising worldwide. In the course of the last 20 years, blindness and low vision due to diabetic eye complications have increased in large regions in Eastern Europe, North Africa/Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. The magnitude and trends of vision-threatening disease are presented. Systemic risk factors for progression to sight-threatening disease are reviewed. The impact of economic and cultural background on early diagnosis and adherence to treatment is highlighted. Current management of diabetic macular edema, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, neovascular glaucoma, and cataract surgery of diabetic patients is outlined, and its contribution to preventing vision loss is reviewed.

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