WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CATARACT SURGERY

How can a cataract be treated?

A cataract may not need to be treated if your vision is only slightly blurry.  Changing your eyeglass prescription may help to improve your vision for a while.  There are no medications, eyedrops, exercises or glasses that will cause cataracts to disappear once they have formed.  Surgery is the only way to remove a cataract.  When you are not able to see well enough to do the things you like to do, cataract surgery should be considered.  In cataract surgery the cloudy lens is removed from the eye with a surgical incision (not with a laser).  In most cases, the focusing power of the natural lens is restored by replacing it with a permanent intraocular lens implant.

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What can I expect if I decide to have surgery?

Before Surgery

Once you and your ophthalmologist have decided that you will have your cataract removed, he or she will complete an eye examination.  Your eye will be measured to determine the proper power of the intraocular lens that will be placed in your eye during surgery.  Medications that thin the blood will usually be stopped a week prior to surgery.  You should, however, check with your doctor.  Finally, you should make arrangement for someone to drive you home after surgery.

The Day of Surgery

Surgery is usually done on an outpatient basis.  You will be asked not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before.  When you arrive for surgery, you will be given eyedrops and perhaps a sedative to help you relax.  A local anesthetic will numb the eye area.  You may see light and movement, but you will not be able to see the surgery while it is happening.  Your eye will be kept open by a lid speculum or other method.  The skin around your eye will be thoroughly cleansed, and sterile coverings will be placed around your head.  

Under an operating microscope, a small incision is made in your eye.  Microsurgical instruments are used to break apart and suction the cloudy lens from your eye.  The back membrane of the lens (called the posterior capsule) is left in place.

A plastic intraocular lens implant will be placed inside your eye to replace the natural lens that was removed.  The incision is then closed.  When stitches are used, they usually do not have to be removed.  When the surgery is complete, the doctor will place a shield over your eye.  After a short stay in the outpatient recovery area, you will be ready to go home.

Following Surgery

You will need to use eyedrops as prescribed; be careful not to rub or press on the eye; avoid strenuous activities until the eye has healed; wear eyeglasses or an eye shield as directed by your doctor; ask your doctor when you may begin driving.
 

When Laser is Used

Laser surgery is rarely a part of the original cataract operation.  However, the posterior capsule sometimes turns cloudy several months or years after the original cataract surgery.  If this cloudiness blurs your vision, a subsequent laser surgery can be done by your ophthalmologist.