All You Need to Know About Cataract Surgery

Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed operation in the world, and one of the most successful. Understanding it removes most of the anxiety patients arrive with.

What is a cataract?

The natural lens inside your eye is normally clear. With age its proteins clump together and it becomes cloudy — that cloudiness is the cataract. Vision blurs, colours look washed out, headlights produce glare and reading needs more and more light.

When should you have surgery?

There is no need to wait until the cataract is “ripe”. The right time is when the cataract interferes with things you want to do: driving at night, reading, recognising faces, or working comfortably.

What happens during surgery

Modern cataract surgery is phacoemulsification. Through an incision of about 2 mm the clouded lens is broken up with ultrasound and removed, and a folded intraocular lens (IOL) is placed in its position. It takes around 15 minutes per eye, needs no stitches and no general anaesthesia.

Choosing a lens

• Monofocal — sharp distance vision; reading glasses usually still needed.
• Toric — also corrects astigmatism.
• Multifocal or trifocal — distance, intermediate and near, giving most people spectacle independence.

Recovery

Vision improves within a day or two. You will use antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drops for a few weeks, avoid rubbing the eye, and keep water and dust out of it. Most people return to office work within two to three days.