Have an Eye over Various Procedures Involved in Cataract Surgery

Cataract operations are very commonly performed today and before your surgeon get the operation done on you, your surgeon will subject you to various tests.

Under any normal and uncomplicated circumstances your surgeon may take only ninety minutes for performing the cataract surgery alone or with any other combined procedure such as filtering operation.

Normally you may not need to stay overnight in the hospital, however this will depend on your condition and your surgeon’s preference.

And in any case you can go home the next day. Before your surgeon could commence the operation procedure you will be administered with anesthesia and it will be injected around your eye.

Anesthesia administration may hurt a little, but the pain or the discomfort will cease to exist within few seconds once the effect of anesthesia takes over.

Once your eye becomes numb, the surgeon will start performing the cataract operation and in the event of your having glaucoma complications also, then your surgeon performs the surgery for glaucoma and the intraocular lens will also be implanted immediately.

Once the cataract surgery is over, your eye will be bandaged for overnight. The next morning, your surgeon will open the bandage and do a thorough check to assess the effectiveness of the performed cataract surgery.

The surgeon will also check the IOP for effective monitoring. Then you will be treated with antibiotic drops and steroids to avoid secondary infection and to contain inflammation.

Your eyes will also be protected with an eye shield, which is nothing but an oval shaped plastic object with perforations. This eye shield will protect your eye during your sleep and you will also be advised not to lift any heavy articles or bend your head down.

Further, you will also be cautioned against straining during your morning bowel movement and in case you have difficulty while passing stools, you can use stool softener.

With the above-mentioned precautions, you can carry out your regular and normal day to day activities. Regarding taking shower, there are still two opinions, one suggestion in favor and the other suggestion a strict no.

However, it s better you avoid headbath or shower for the first few days after surgery.You can start wearing glasses within the first 4 or 5 weeks time and this depends on your healing process and how fast your eyes can get stabilized.

Many of the practicing ophthalmologists vouch for implanting lenses that can make the patient a little bit myopic and then the surgeon prescribe glasses or contact lens for distance correction.

This particular method or practice can go well if the patient is nearsighted even before surgery. However, those patients who always prefer to view the world myopically or doesn’t want any external objects within their eyes may not appreciate this and may not get adopted that quickly.

The decision for choosing a correct lens that has to be implanted greatly depends on a collective situation such as your corneal curvature, dimensions of your eyes and the depth of the anterior chamber.

At this stage you can also put forth your expectations to your surgeon and discus the matter so as to decide on a lens that will be more comfortable for you.

Unfortunately, the technology is yet to give you bifocal intraocular lenses and you have to get satisfied with only what is available today. The best choice could be to go for intraocular implantable lens that can give you a perfect nearsight and you can depend on external glasses or contact lenses for your distant vision.

This particular combination is well suited for a majority of people and for nearsighted people in particular. Though few patients have opted for getting fixed with intraocular lens in one eye for their reading needs and another intraocular lens in the other eye for their distance vision.

However, this combination is not good and is not advocated, as your eye will get strained out of frequent focussing and you may not be able perceive the depth properly.

As in any other surgery, cataract surgery can also cause complications and if the patients happen to be suffering from glaucoma, then the problems will get compounded.

One of the rare complications of pupillary block may occur out of cataract surgery and in this the aqueous fluid will not be able to enter the space between your iris and the lens thereby resulting in an increased pressure.

The pressure build up will also push your iris forward and it will block the drainage channel causing an extreme IOP. Though Pupillary block is fewer in numbers, it will not occur if extracapsular extraction is used and the pupillary block itself can be corrected through iridectomy or iridotomy procedures.

On the contrary to increased IOP, a decrease in IOP can also be very critical and dangerous. A low intraocular pressure will make the aqueous fluid to flow rapidly from the anterior chamber of your eye.

This rapid passing of aqueous fluid may cause your chamber to constrict internally or flatten and giving a scope for your iris and cornea to stick together, which were otherwise kept separate by the fluid.

If the measured IOP in below 5 mm Hg, then there is a possibility that your iris and cornea may be sticking together, which is not desirable on any counts.

Cataract surgery being an invasive procedure may lead to bleeding. There will be disruption of blood vessels within your eye due to surgery, but these bleeding blood vessels will get healed on its own.

In very rare cases, the healing process may take days, and during this period you will have blurred vision due to the presence of blood in your eyeball. Once the healing is over and the discharged blood is out, you will get back the clear vision.

Many people do have a very fragile cornea and such people are prone to get a condition called corneal decompensation and in this the cornea will lose many of its cells composition and the cornea may not get back the original shape and consistency.

This problem will crop up if your cornea runs short of cells or suffer from scarcity of cells. Further, glaucoma patients are also more susceptible to this effect.

Due to incompatibility with the implanted lens, your eye may adversely react and start growing adhesive layers at contact points of lens.

A condition called chronic iritis, which is nothing but the iris inflammation, will result if the implanted lens is not properly positioned.

Neovascularization is a yet another condition that you may develop if you have recurrent bleeding and this condition is similar to neovascular glaucoma.

There are few reported cases of patients developing narrow-angle glaucoma after cataract operation due to the reason of shifting of few eye parts such as pupil or ciliay body

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