Cataract Surgery

Cataract surgery is a procedure used to restore cataract-related vision loss. During surgery, the clouded lens inside your eye will be replaced with a clear artificial lens. You won't feel any pain during the procedure, and it usually only takes about 15 minutes. It's typically an outpatient procedure and doesn't require an overnight stay in a hospital.

Cataract surgery might sound scary at first, but it's one of the safest and most effective vision surgeries available today. Millions of cataract surgeries are performed in the U.S. every year, and the vast majority have excellent outcomes.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), cataracts affect:

• About 1 in 20 of people aged 50-54
• Roughly half of people aged 75-79
• More than 2 in 3 people over age 80

What happens during cataract surgery?

The cloudy lens inside your eye will be removed and replaced with a clear artificial lens during surgery. This device is called an intraocular lens, or IOL for short. An IOL helps restore the clear vision you had before cataracts developed.

During any form of cataract removal, special precautions are taken to make sure you're completely relaxed and pain-free. At worst, patients can experience a slight sensation of pressure, but this feeling isn't painful.

A modern cataract surgery procedure will often follow these steps:

1. A small incision is made along the side of the cornea.

2. A high-frequency ultrasound device or laser is used to carefully break up the cloudy lens into small fragments.

3. The lens fragments are gently removed from the eye using suction.

4. After all fragments have been removed, the surgeon places the IOL behind the pupil and the colored part of the eye (iris) in the same spot your natural lens occupied.

5. The incision heals on its own without any stitches.

6. A protective shield is placed over the eye to keep it safe during the early stages of recovery.

If you need surgery in both eyes, your cataract surgeon will typically wait one to three weeks between procedures, to give the first eye a chance to heal.
​​​​​​​
This information is provided by allaboutvision.com.