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Cataract surgery
Cataract is the clouding of the normally clear and transparent lens of an eye. However, as a result of the natural ageing process, the lens gradually becomes cloudy.
The cataract or cloudy lens blocks the passage of light through the eye and causes distorted or blurred vision. The most effective way to restore vision, once a cataract has formed, is to remove the cloudy cataract and replace it with a plastic lens implant (intraocular lens or IOL). Vision can be restored safer and faster with recent advances in cataract surgery equipment and techniques, allowing patients to resume normal activities within hours after surgery (some activities may be limited during healing). Using these state of the art techniques, cataract surgery has a success rate greater than 98%. In the not so distant past, cataract surgery used to involve making a large incision to remove the cloudy lens, and patients were often brought into the hospital overnight or for several days. Now with the aid of new technologies, the surgery can be performed through a very small incision, less than 1/8th of an inch, and the recovery time is significantly shorter. A slender instrument can gently break up the cloudy lens using sound waves and remove the pieces by vacuum, through this small opening. This process is called phacoemulsification. A new clear implant lens is folded, once the cataract has been removed, inserted through the small incision, and allowed to open up in the same "bag" that used to hold your own lens in place. The surgery is done as outpatient surgery and typically takes 20-40 minutes to perform. This means that the patient can go home on the same day as he has the surgery. It is performed with local anesthesia and thus does not carry the risks of general anesthesia.