Cataract surgery involves replacing the cloudy lens inside your eye with an artificial one. It's the most common operation performed, with a high success rate in improving your eyesight. It can take 4 to 6 weeks to fully recover from 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. A cataract can occur in either or both eyes. It cannot spread from one eye to the other.
What is the lens?
The lens is a clear part of the eye that helps to focus light, or an image, on the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.
In a normal eye, light passes through the transparent lens to the retina. Once it reaches the retina, light is changed into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. The lens must be clear for the retina to receive a sharp image. If the lens is cloudy from a cataract, the image you see will be blurred.
How do cataracts affect vision?
Age-related cataracts can affect your vision in two ways:
Clumps of protein reduce the sharpness of the image reaching the retina. The lens consists mostly of water and protein. When the protein clumps up, it clouds the lens and reduces the light that reaches the retina. The clouding may become severe enough to cause blurred vision. Most age-related cataracts develop from protein clumpings. When a cataract is small, the cloudiness affects only a small part of the lens. You may not notice any changes in your vision. Cataracts tend to “grow” slowly, so vision gets worse gradually. Over time, the cloudy area in the lens may get larger, and the cataract may increase in size. Seeing may become more difficult. Your vision may get duller or blurrier.
The clear lens slowly changes to a yellowish/brownish color, adding a brownish tint to vision. As the clear lens slowly colors with age, your vision gradually may acquire a brownish shade. At first, the amount of tinting may be small and may not cause a vision problem. Over time, increased tinting may make it more difficult to read and perform other routine activities. This gradual change in the amount of tinting does not affect the sharpness of the image transmitted to the retina. If you have advanced lens discoloration, you may not be able to identify blues and purples. You may be wearing what you believe to be a pair of black socks, only to find out from friends that you are wearing purple socks.
The operation of Cataract Surgery:
Cataract surgery is a straightforward procedure that usually takes 30 to 45 minutes.
It's often carried out as day surgery under local anaesthetic and you should be able to go home on the same day.
During the operation, the surgeon will make a tiny cut in your eye to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a clear plastic one.
With the NHS, you will usually be offered monofocal lenses, which have a single point of focus. This means the lens will be fixed for either near or distance vision, but not both.
If you go private, you may be able to choose either a multifocal or an accommodating lens, which allow the eye to focus on both near and distant objects.
Most people will need to wear glasses for some tasks, like reading, after surgery regardless of the type of lens they have fitted.
If you have cataracts in both eyes, you'll need two separate operations, usually carried out 6 to 12 weeks apart.
This will give the first eye to be treated time to heal and your vision time to return.
Benefits of Cataract surgery:
After cataract surgery you should be able to;
- see things in focus
- look into bright lights and not see as much glare
- tell the difference between colours
If you have another condition affecting your eyes, such as diabetes or glaucoma, you may still have limited vision, even after successful surgery.
What are the symptoms of a cataract?
The most common symptoms of a cataract are;
- Cloudy or blurry vision
- Colors seem faded
- Glare. Headlights, lamps, or sunlight may appear too bright. A halo may appear around lights
- Poor night vision
- Double vision or multiple images in one eye
- Frequent prescription changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses
These symptoms also can be a sign of other eye problems. If you have any of these symptoms, check with your eye care professional.
Are there different types of cataract?
Yes. Although most cataracts are related to aging, there are other types of cataract:
Secondary cataract: Cataracts can form after surgery for other eye problems, such as glaucoma. Cataracts also can develop in people who have other health problems, such as diabetes. Cataracts are sometimes linked to steroid use.
Traumatic cataract: Cataracts can develop after an eye injury, sometimes years later.
Congenital cataract: Some babies are born with cataracts or develop them in childhood, often in both eyes. These cataracts may be so small that they do not affect vision. If they do, the lenses may need to be removed.
Radiation cataract: Cataracts can develop after exposure to some types of radiation.