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Dra. Daniela Barba Castelo | Ophthalmologist
Cataract Surgery
Dra. Daniela Barba Castelo | Ophthalmologist
What are cataracts?
Inside the human eye, we have a natural lens called "crystalline" that with age (approximately 60 years of age) begins to opacify, causing light to not enter the eye properly, resulting in poor quality of vision.
One of the main symptoms of cataracts can be a decrease in visual acuity that does not improve even with prescription glasses.
The most common cause of cataract is age, also known as senile cataract, which is the natural aging of our lens. Other common causes of cataracts are due to uncontrolled diabetes and another less common cause is congenital cataract.
How are cataracts treated?
The only way to treat cataracts surgically, removing the opaque material and replacing it with an intraocular lens implant.
The most common procedure to treat cataracts is called phacoemulsification where small incisions are made through the cornea to be able to work inside the eye. Once the opaque material is removed within the lens, the capsular bag remains where the intraocular lens will be implanted.
It is important to know that each patient undergoes measurement studies in order to calculate the power of the lens.
"The recovery time from cataract surgery tends to be quite fast, it is a type of outpatient surgery which allows it to be relative rest. Total vision stability is expected 6 weeks after surgery."
The main objective of the intraocular lens is the independence of glasses, however there are different models of intraocular lenses:
Single vision lenses that are intended to improve distant vision but do not have the ability to see up close; Within the monofocals we can find toric monofocal lenses that have the function of correcting both distant vision and correcting astigmatism (better quality of vision).
Trifocal lenses are the newest on the market for the correction of far, intermediate and near vision. This type of lens is made a selection of the patient since being a Premium lens it is very important that the patient does not have intraocular pathologies (diabetic retinopathy, maculopathies, previous refractive surgeries).
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