Cataract Surgery

How is Cataract Surgery Performed? 

Cataract surgery is one of the most common, safest and the most effective types of surgery in the world. The cloudy natural lens is removed and the artificial intraocular lens is installed via a tiny incision at the edge of the eye. This incision is usually self-sealing, with no stitches required, allowing for a fast and easy recovery.

The entire procedure takes between 15 and 30 minutes under local anaesthesia.

What are Intraocular Lenses?

The intraocular lens is an amazing piece of technology. Made of an acrylic-type material, they mimic the refractive properties of your natural lens, focusing the light on the retina and providing clear vision after surgery. The intraocular lens is inserted during the surgery through a microincision only about 2.2mm in size.

At The Medical Eye Clinic, we can accurately calculate the exact power of intraocular lens your eye requires to focus light correctly, often providing fantastic distance vision without glasses. It is normal that with standard monofocal introcular lenses, reading glasses may still need to be needed after surgery.

For private cataract surgery patients, there is also the option of Premium lens implant, including Toric lenses, extended depth of focus (EDOF) lenses, Toric EDOF lenses and multifocal lenses.

What are the Potential Complications?

Modern cataract surgery consistently achieves good outcomes and is amongst the safest operations that are frequently performed today. However, all surgical procedures can have potential complications. It is possible for a cataract operation to leave you worse off than you are now. One person in every 1000 will have a sight threatening problem in that eye as a direct result of the operation. 

What are the Alternatives?

When cataract first develops, a change in glasses prescriptions or other visual aids (e.g. magnifying glass) may help you to see better in the short-term. However, as the cataract advances, glasses and magnifiers will not be able to overcome the deteriorating vision. Surgery to remove the cloudy lens from inside your eye and replace it with a new artificial one is the only way to restore your vision.