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Cataract Surgery

Cataract Surgery. What is a Cataract?. A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision. Most cataracts are related to aging. Cataracts are very common in older people. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery .

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Cataract Surgery

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  1. Cataract Surgery

  2. What is a Cataract? • A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision. Most cataracts are related to aging. Cataracts are very common in older people. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery. • A cataract can occur in one or both eyes. It cannot spread from one eye to the other. • This picture displays what a person who has a cataract sees.

  3. Types of Surgeries • Phacoemulsification: This is the most common form of cataract removal as explained above. In this most modern method, cataract surgery can usually be performed in less than 30 minutes and usually requires only minimal sedation. Numbing eyedrops or an injection around the eye is used and, in general, no stitches are used to close the wound, and often no eye patch is required after surgery. • Extracapsular cataract surgery: This procedure is used mainly for very advanced cataracts where the lens is too dense to dissolve into fragments (phacoemulsify). This technique requires a larger incision so that the cataract can be removed in one piece without being fragmented inside the eye. An artificial lens is placed in the same capsular bag as with the phacoemulsification technique. This surgical technique requires a various number of sutures to close the larger wound, and visual recovery is often slower. Extracapsular cataract extraction usually requires an injection of numbing medication around the eye and an eye patch after surgery.

  4. Types of Surgeries • Intracapsular cataract surgery: This surgical technique requires an even larger wound than extracapsular surgery, and the surgeon removes the entire lens and the surrounding capsule together. This technique requires the intraocular lens to be placed in a different location, in front of the iris. This method is rarely used today but can still be useful in cases of significant trauma.

  5. Types of intraocular lenses implanted during cataract surgery • Monofocal lens: These lenses are the most commonly implanted lenses today. They have equal power in all regions of the lens and can provide high-quality distance vision, usually with only a light pair of spectacles. Monofocal lenses are in sharpest focus at only one distance. They do not correct pre-existing astigmatism, a result of irregular corneal shape that can distort vision at all distances. Your surgeon may correct the astigmatism at the time of cataract surgery by making one or two additional incisions in the periphery of the cornea. This does not make the surgery more dangerous. People with significant astigmatism require corrective lenses for sharpest vision at all distances. Patients who have had monofocal intraocular lenses implanted usually require reading glasses.

  6. Types of intraocular lenses implanted during cataract surgery • Toric lens: Toric lenses have more power in one specific region in the lens to correct astigmatism as well as distance vision. Due to the difference in lens power in different areas, the correction of astigmatism with a toric lens requires that the lens be positioned in a very specific configuration. While toric lenses can improve distance vision and astigmatism, the patient still will require corrective lenses for all near tasks, such as reading or writing. • Multifocal lens: Multifocal intraocular lenses are one of the latest advancements in lens technology. These lenses have a variety of regions with different power that allows some individuals to see at a variety of distances, including distance, intermediate, and near. While promising, multifocal lenses are not for everyone. They can cause significantly more glare than monofocal or toric lenses. Multifocal lenses cannot correct astigmatism, and some patients still require spectacles or contact lenses for clearest vision.

  7. Costs of Cataract Surgery • The cost of cataract surgery depends on many variables, such as the type of procedure you have and the intraocular lens (IOL) implanted in your eye. The area where you live also can be a factor, depending on cost-of-living standards that help set the typical price of cataract surgery. • On average cataract surgery in the United States would cost you about $2,699 per eye if you paid for everything yourself. • The graph below shows what you would pay with insurance involved:

  8. Benefits of Cataract Surgery • One of the greatest benefits of cataract surgery is the increased quality of life. • Activities such as reading, sports, cooking, driving, using a computer and sewing become easier after the operation. • Improved clarity of vision • Improved vision in dim light • Reduced glare in bright light or during night driving • Colors may seem richer • Improved vision may enable some patients to continue driving

  9. Works Cited • http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/cataract/cataract_facts.asp • http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/157510.php

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