Cataract

Cataract is the clouding of the lens of the eye. Though it can occur at any age it is the leading cause of vision loss in people over age 55. More than half of people over age 65 have some degree of cataract development.

Other reasons may be prolonged use of steroids, exposure to ultraviolet, and associated health problems like diabetes and eye injuries. A person with diabetes, smoke, or have a family history of cataract, excessive exposure to sunlight, serious eye injury or inflammation, or prolonged use of steroids has an increased risk of cataract.

When a cataract develops person feels blurry vision, faded colors, glare, difficulty in seeing at night and double vision, eye strain, headache, and frequent changes of glasses. One should not ignore the early symptoms and get a check-up of the eyes by an eye specialist. Ignorance may lead to complications.

At the early stage of cataract, new eyeglasses, brighter lighting, anti-glare sunglasses, or magnifying lenses may help but if these measures don’t improve your symptoms, the only effective treatment is surgery, which involves removing the cloudy lens and replacing it with an artificial lens.

Surgery is the only known effective treatment for cataract removal and is one of the safest and most effective types of surgery, with a success rate of about 90 percent. All cataract surgeries are aimed at the removal of the cloudy natural lens and replacing it with an Intra Ocular Lens (IOL). These lenses can be inserted through a small 1.8 to 2.8 mm opening. With this small incision, foldable lenses are implanted into the eyes. Thus there is no need for full-day admission, injection, stitch, and patching of the eye. One can go for surgery in any season and resume once duty on the very next day.

With technological advancement today we have a great choice of lens. Aspheric lenses work like a natural human lens, cylinder number can be corrected by Toric IOL and a person will be glass free with Multifocal lenses.

They are explained in detail below:

• Aberration free/ Aspheric IOLS
  These IOLs gives good quality of vision post-operative due to the lens design, it also improves the contrast sensitivity of the patient and good night vision. These lenses also filter the harmful UV light and blue light which are said to be harmful to the retina.
• Toric IOLS
  These IOLs correct the pre-existing corneal astigmatism there by reducing the possibility of spectacle wear for distant vision post-operatively.
• Multifocal IOLs
  These IOLs provide clear vision for all distances hence almost 90% of the day-to-day activities can be performed without the need for additional glasses. Rarely the patient may experience glare during nights post-operatively but usually gets adapted within a few months.
• Accommodating IOLs
  These IOLs have flexible hinges that enables them to change focus for different distances hence providing clear distance, intermediate and near vision without glasses.