Elmira ASC, LLC
You've Got a Cataract, What Does That Mean?
A cataract is a cloudy lens that interferes with your vision.
Who Gets Cataracts?
Cataracts are a natural part of aging. If you live long enough, you'll get cataracts. Cataracts are more common in older people but can also be caused by an injury. Some medications, such as steroids, can make cataracts develop faster than they normally would. Some diseases, such as diabetes, make cataracts appear earlier than they otherwise might.
What Can Be Done to Improve Vision When a Cataract Has Developed?
Early cataracts often need nothing but to be monitored for progress. Sometimes, an update on your eyeglass prescription can compensate for early cataract changes. Extra bright lights can sometimes help while reading. Currently, the only treatment for cataracts, which have developed to the point where they interfere with vision, is surgery.
When is the Right Time to Have Cataract Surgery?
Each patient has to decide when cataract surgery is right for them and should consider if they are having trouble with things like driving, hobbies, watching television, reading, work tasks or enjoyment of scenery.
When You and Your Doctor Decide the Time is Right, We are Ready for You
Risks, Benefits and Alternatives
All surgeries come with risks. Cataract surgery is serious and comes with risks. We attempt to minimize those risks, but cannot eliminate them completely. Most patients who have cataract surgery benefit from better vision following surgery, since the cloudy lens that was interfering has been removed.
Risks include:
Pieces of the natural lens dropping into the back of the eye during surgery. This can happen because the "bag" that holds the natural lens is fragile. Studies have shown that this happens about one percent of the time (1 out of 100 cases) and can result in the need for further surgeries to remove the lens.
It is possible the eye can become infected after cataract surgery, resulting in the need for additional surgeries. Estimates of how frequently this happens range from 1 in 500 cases to 1 in 10,000 cases. Newer techniques and medications given during the surgery have tended to reduce this risk but haven't fully eliminated it. We take measurements and apply our experience to choose the right lens implant, but it is possible that the lens implanted doesn't fully optimize your vision, resulting in the need for correction by eyeglasses, contact lenses, or even a second surgery to reposition or replace the lens implant.
Cataract surgery can result in eye inflammation and/or an increase in pressure in the eye, either of which can result in loss of vision.
Some patients have known or unknown eye conditions that are present in addition to cataract surgery. Cataract surgery cannot fix those conditions and they may continue to limit your vision.
A capsular "bag" in your eye surrounds your eye's natural lens. Typically, the replacement lens is placed in that bag during surgery. In about one-third of patients, that bag becomes cloudy and requires a quick and typically painless laser procedure to fix. This can happen shortly after surgery, or years later, and is quite common.
Surgical complications from cataract surgery can potentially result in reduced vision, the need for additional surgeries, and, very rarely, complete loss of vision or need for removal of the eye.
There may be a risk of bleeding. If you are on blood-thinners or anti-coagulants, and those are stopped prior to surgery, there is a risk that the condition being treated or prevented by those anti-coagulants may be increased.
Alternatives to surgery include "watchful waiting". Cataracts are considered a progressive condition, and they get worse over time. There is some evidence that risks are increased for patients who delay surgery until cataracts are very advanced, since they are more challenging to remove, and complications are more likely.
Cataract Surgery Can Open Up New Opportunities and Allow You to Return to Activities that You Enjoy
