Can Cataract Surgery provide better vision for a happier life?
Can Cataract Surgery provide better vision for a happier life?
Cataract Surgery - complications
General Info:
The word Cataract is derived from the Latin word “Cataracta” meaning “waterfall”. A cataract is simply a "clouding" of the natural lens in your eyes, it affects your vision, like looking through a “waterfall”.
It is a natural process associated with age especially adults aged 55 years and above. As light passes through the cloudy lens, it is diffused or scattered. This results in blurred or defocused vision.
A cataract generally should be removed to provide better and clearer vision.
Most cataracts are highly treatable. Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries performed in Singapore with 100% of patients experiencing improved vision if there are no other eye conditions present.
A cataract can occur in either or both eyes. It cannot spread from one eye to the other.
Cataract Surgery can provide better vision for a happier life
Being diagnosed with a cataract need not be alarming event. In fact, when you understand what a cataract is, how it will be removed, and the life-changing benefits cataract surgery can bring, you'll likely wish you'd had the procedure sooner.
A cataract can progress until eventually there is a complete loss of vision in your eye, and neither diet nor laser treatment will make a cataract go away. LASIK eye surgery cannot treat a cataract.
However, a cataract surgery can help restore your vision, long before you experience loss of vision significant enough to interfere with your daily activities.
After successful cataract treatment, your vision will be clearer, brighter, and sharper than it’s been for long time.
During the procedure
Cataract surgery, usually an outpatient procedure, takes an hour or less to perform. Eyedrops placed in your eye dilate your pupil. You'll have local anesthetics to numb the area, and you may be given a sedative to help you relax. If you're given a sedative, you may be awake but groggy during surgery. Rarely does anyone require general anesthesia for cataract surgery.
Typically, two things happen during cataract surgery — the clouded lens is removed, and a clear artificial lens is implanted. In some cases, however, a cataract may be removed without implanting an artificial lens.
Surgical methods used to remove cataracts include:
•Phacoemulsification (fak-o-e-mul-sih-fih-KA-shun). In phacoemulsification, your surgeon removes the cataract but leaves most of the back layer of the lens (lens capsule) in place. To do this, your surgeon makes a small incision — about 1/8 inch, or 3 millimeters (mm), long — where the cornea meets the conjunctiva and inserts a needle-thin probe. Your surgeon then uses the probe, which transmits ultrasound waves, to break up (emulsify) the cataract and suction out the fragments. The lens capsule remains in place to provide support for the lens implant.
•Extracapsular cataract extraction. If your cataract has advanced to the point where phacoemulsification can't break up the clouded lens, your surgeon may do an extracapsular cataract extraction. This procedure requires a larger incision, about 2/10 inch (10 mm), where the cornea and sclera meet. Through this incision your surgeon opens the lens capsule, removes the center (nucleus) of the lens in one piece and vacuums out the softer outer lens, leaving the capsule in place.
Once the cataract has been removed by either phacoemulsification or extracapsular extraction, a clear artificial lens is implanted into the empty lens capsule. This implant, known as an intraocular lens (IOL), is made of plastic, acrylic or silicone. You won't be able to see or feel the lens; it requires no care and becomes a permanent part of your eye.
Some IOLs are rigid plastic and implanted through an incision that requires several stitches (sutures) to close. However, many IOLs are flexible, allowing a smaller incision that requires no stitches. The surgeon folds this type of lens and inserts it into the empty capsule where the natural lens used to be. Once in place the lens unfolds to about 1/4 inch (6 mm) in diameter.
Recent advances in IOLs include blue-blocking lenses, which filter out ultraviolet light. Other types of IOLs provide multifocal vision — being able to see things both near and at a distance. Multifocal lenses offer reasonably good near and distance vision. However, vision at the intermediate range is sometimes less than satisfactory. Glare is reportedly a problem with multifocal lenses, but design improvements are ongoing.
After the procedure
With phacoemulsification and foldable lens implants, surgical incisions are very small, and sutures may not be necessary. If all goes well, you'll heal fast and your vision will start to improve within a few days.
You'll typically see your eye doctor the day after your surgery, the following week and then again after a month to monitor healing.
It's normal to feel itching and mild discomfort for a couple of days after surgery. Avoid rubbing or pressing on your eye. Clean your eyelids with tissue or cotton balls to remove any crusty discharge. You may wear an eye patch or protective shield the day of surgery. Your doctor may prescribe eyedrops or other medication to prevent infection and control eye pressure. After a couple of days, all discomfort should disappear. Often, complete healing occurs within eight weeks.
Contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following:
•Vision loss
•Pain that persists despite the use of over-the-counter pain medications
•Increased eye redness
•Light flashes or multiple spots (floaters) in front of your eye
•Nausea, vomiting or excessive coughing
You're likely to need glasses after cataract surgery, both for reading and to correct astigmatism, a focusing problem caused by uneven curving of the cornea. Although astigmatism is often unavoidable, it's not likely to be a significant problem if your surgeon is able to remove the cataract through a very small incision. Your doctor will let you know when your eyes have healed enough for you to get a final prescription for eyeglasses.
If you have cataracts in both eyes, your doctor typically schedules a second surgery a month or two later to remove the cataract in your other eye. This allows time for the first eye to heal before the second eye surgery takes place.
Results
Cataract surgery successfully restores vision in the majority of people who have the procedure done.
Months to years after cataract surgery, you have a 25 percent risk of developing a condition known as posterior capsule opacification (PCO), or second cataract. This happens when the back of the lens capsule — the part of the lens that wasn't removed during surgery and that now supports the lens implant — becomes cloudy and impairs your vision. The gradual clouding is the result of cell growth on the back of the capsule.
To treat PCO, you need a painless, five-minute outpatient procedure called YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) laser capsulotomy. In YAG laser capsulotomy, a laser beam is used to make a small opening in the clouded capsule to let light pass through.
After the procedure, you typically stay in the doctor's office for about an hour to make sure your eye pressure doesn't increase — a potential complication if you have glaucoma or are extremely nearsighted. Other complications are rare but can include swelling of the macula and retinal detachment.
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SYMPTOMS & DETECTION
Cataract Surgery Complications
Types of Cataract Surgery
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