SERVICES
Cataract Surgery
What is a Cataract?
A cataract forms when the natural lens inside one or both eyes becomes cloudy and this affects the quality of vision.
Common symptoms of cataracts:
- Blurred vision
- Increased glare
- Halos
- Increased myopia (short-sightedness)
Factors that can increase the risk of cataracts:
Cataracts occur at any age but are more common as we get older, but other risk factors include:
- Trauma
- Steroid use
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Alcohol
What Happens During Cataract Surgery?
The only effective treatment for cataract is surgery, to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a clear artificial lens. The natural lens is a bag of protein, as the cataract forms the protein de-natures and becomes cloudy.
Cataract surgery essentially involves making a 5mm circular opening in the front of the lens bag, removing all of the cloudy lens protein with ultrasound and then placing the new lens implant inside the empty clear lens bag. The surgery is performed under local anaesthetic as a day-case and no sutures are required.
What sort of Cataract Lens implants are available?
Types of Lenses
There are four different types of lens implants available for cataract surgery, each for a specific use case. Mr McPherson will discuss each with you in detail so he can do what is best for your situation.
Standard Lens
Generally known as a fixed focus lens, these lenses give good clear bright distance vision, but patients still require reading glasses.
Multifocal Lens
Only used in patients that have preoperative astigmatism (Rugby ball shaped eyes)
Toric Lens
Used in patients who want to reduce their dependence on glasses; the majority of patients have good distance and reading vision post operatively and will not require distance or reading glasses.
Extended Depth Of Focus (EDOF) Lens
Essentially a distance lens with very bright and clear vision with a more natural range of unaided vision than the standard lens, Patients generally are less dependent on glasses day to day but usually need reading glasses for prolonged reading and fine print only.
Where do you source your lenses?
Multifocals/Trifocals
Our Multifocal lenses are supplied by Alcon Panoptix.
Torics
Our Toric lenses are supplied by Alcon Acrysof Toric.
Extended Depth Of Focus (EDOF)
Our EDOF lenses are supplied by Alcon Vivity.
Please see the Alcon website if you would like to read more information about these lenses.
