When the natural and clear eye lens becomes blurred or cloudy, then there is a great likelihood that a cataract has clouded your lens. Cataracts occur with age but in exceptional cases, it can happen during birth or develop later on as a result of drugs, injury, chemical reactions. Most doctors suggest cataract surgery is the best way o dealing with this condition.
Things that happen during surgery of cataract
During this surgery, the cloudy lens is either cleaned or removed and replaced with a clear man-made lens to improve the vision of the patient. The technical name of the surgery of cataract is phacoemulsification, which can be defined as a surgery with minor incisions. This cut is made small at the hard central part of the lens is vacuumed out after liquefying it. Some doctors use laser techniques to make this cut more precise. This also makes the recovery after surgery easier.
Who does it?
A surgeon performs this surgery by making a small opening on the side of the cornea, under local anesthesia. During the operation, the natural lens in the eye is broken into small pieces by the ultrasound vibrations sent by a device inserted into the opening on the cornea. These pieces are then removed through that small cut on the eye through suction.
What Happens?
Surgeons usually replace the lens with a new man-made lens known as IOL or intraocular lens, after removing the cataract. This lens is made of clear acrylic, silicone or plastic and has an optical power, as suggested by the doctor, to minimize the dependency on the glasses or provide normal vision after surgery. This lens needs no special care as it is inserted permanently into the eye.
Benefits of the surgical operation
This man-made lens helps in improving vision by focusing the light on your retina. But in some cases, you may need to wear prescription glasses even after replacing your natural lens with an IOL. Though most people can see without glasses after this surgery. In some cases, this distance of vision is limited. To improve that vision, they have to wear prescription glasses of lower power even after the operation.
Being an outpatient procedure, cataract surgery is performed in an operation theater. So you need not stay in a hospital after this surgical treatment of your eye. Moreover, doctors do not remove cataracts from both the eyes in case they are in both eyes. The surgery of the second eye can be done few weeks after the completion of the first.
