Diabetic retinopathy frequently causes blindness, especially in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). The implementation of systematic screening can improve the visual prognosis significantly, and recently decision models that allow individualised determination of control intervals on the basis of known risk factors have been introduced. Current treatment of diabetic retinopathy with retinal photocoagulation has adverse effects with severe consequences for patients with T2D. However, recently intravitreal angiostatic therapy has been introduced as an effective new modality for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy.