Cataract surgery
is usually fast, comfortable, and quite successful. Surgery can and usually is
performed as outpatient surgery. Anesthesia consists of minimal sedation
and a local block for comfort. The surgery usually takes less than 15
minutes. You return home in less than two hours total and may resume
normal activity almost immediately.
All surgical work is
done through a self-sealing (sutures are not used) opening into the
eye that is about the size of a pen tip. Cataracts are
never removed with lasers.
| The
cloudy lens is removed with an instrument that loosens the
cloudy lens protein (emulsifies) and gently vacuums
it out of the eye. The instrument is called a phacoemulsifier
and is not a laser. |
|
Once the cloudy lens
is removed, a lens implant is necessary to restore the
focus of the eye. The lens implant is folded and inserted through the
same tiny opening into the eye.
The lens is placed through
the pupil, behind the colored iris to replace the natural human lens.
The lens is permanent and restores the focus of the eye.
