Cataract And Glaucoma Surgery
What is a cataract eye surgery? When you have a cataract, the lens in your eye has become clouded over. The lens is found just behind the colored part of your eye, called the iris. Just like the lens of a camera, the lens of your eye helps you to see the image by focusing the light, along with the colors and shapes, onto the retina. The retina then sends that information to the brain so that you perceive a picture. This lens is made of water and protein that can, unfortunately, cloud over blocking the light. Since the is not properly focused, the images become blurred or block completely. What causes a cataract? An injury to the eye can be responsible for the clouding as can certain medicines. However, these are not the most common causes. Aging is generally the cause of cataracts.
What is the treatment of cataracts? Traditional cataract eye surgery is the only way to remove bad cataracts. Many don't have to have the surgery as long as they are not distorting the vision too much. However, for patients who do need surgery it is fairly simple. As an outpatient, you would go in to have a small cut made so that the surgeon can remove the cloudy lens and replace it with an intraocular lens. This replacement lens will work just as your original lens did to focus images on your retina. Although it sounds bad, there is very little pain. To prevent infection you will probably have to use eye drops and a shield to keep you from rubbing them at night. Glaucoma, another disease often associated with aging, can be treated with laser surgery. This disease is caused by increased pressure in the eye that causes damage to the ocular nerve. Using a high-energy laser beam the surgeon can shrink an area of the meshwork that is not allowing proper drainage of fluid from the eye. This reduces the pressure on the eye and only takes 10 to 20 minutes. Usually, you can go right back to normal activities without any pain. The doctor will check you frequently over the next few days to weeks to make sure the pressure is relieved. Laser surgery for glaucoma almost always lowers intraocular pressure at first, but after a while the intraocular pressure will probably begin to increase again Something that laser or cataract surgery patients may need to watch for are floaters. Floaters are dark spots or flashes of light that float by without being a part of a migraine headache. This is caused by the gel-like vitreous liquefying and contracting as we age. These can form clumps or strands when vitreous gel detaches from the back wall of the eye. This will happen more often for people who are nearsighted, cataract eye surgery patients, YAG laser surgery patients, or a patient with inflammation in the eye. Generally, floaters are not harmful, just annoying. With time most floaters fade. Although patients may feel they need surgery to correct floaters, doctors usually won't recommend it. You should be concerned, however, if you have a sudden appearance of several floaters, especially if flashes of light or other disturbances are involved. These could be signs of retinal detachment or another serious eye condition. In that case see your doctor as soon as possible. |
