[Diabetic eye disease].

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by sustained hyperglycemia leading to macro and microvascular complications. The eye is one of the main organs affected by this disease, being diabetic retinopathy the most well-known microvascular complication and the leading cause of blindness in the working age population. However, diabetic ocular disease is not only characterized by diabetic retinopathy. Other important ocular manifestations of diabetes mellitus include cataract, glaucoma, ischemic optic neuropathy, cranial nerve palsies and recurrent corneal erosion syndrome. Here, we emphasize diabetic retinopathy as the most important and characteristic complication of diabetes mellitus, but also review less well-known complications with the aim to alert and sensitize non-ophthalmologist clinicians that treat diabetic individuals, in order to promote an early diagnosis and treatment of the sight-threatening complications of diabetes.