What are Cataracts

You are finding it difficult to see because you have a cataract. A cataract simply means a cloudy lens in your eye. The lens is the clear part in the front of the eye that helps to focus light or an image on the retina (the lining at the back of the eye), which is sensitive to light. There the light or image is converted into nerve waves or signals and these "travel" through the nerves to a certain area of the brain that finally helps you to see the light and image. In an early cataract, the lens may become yellow, or turn brown. This would make things look yellow or brown through that eye. Some cataracts turn white. Cataracts usually form in both eyes. They steadily get worse. One eye will probably be more trouble than the other. Cataracts are most common in later years, but children and young people also get them. Sometimes, they happen with other diseases, such as diabetes. Some cataracts run in families. Finally, a cataract can develop years after a trauma in the eye or after exposure to radiation.

The Operation

The Surgeon will usually operate on one eye at a time. This means two operations with a wait of a few months in between. Most patients have the eye numbed with a local anaesthetic. Very rarely, a patient might need to be put to sleep with a general anaesthetic to allow him or her to have this operation comfortably. If you have a local anaesthetic you will be awake during the operation, but will feel no pain and will not see anything, because the injection stops the eye working. A small cut will be made in the wall of the eye where the coloured part (the iris) joins the white part. Most of the lens will be taken out. A special plastic lens, or implant, will be placed where the old lens was. The lens will last for your whole life. It does not wear out or go cloudy. It does not need to be renewed. The cut in your eye may be closed with tiny stitches. Sometimes, a slanted cut in the wall of the eye is made, which does not need stitches. The operation takes about 30 minutes.