Cataract Surgery

Types – The most common type of cataract is senile, which appears around the ages of 65 and 70. This is just an approximation, since it can develop earlier, around 55 years, or even after 80.

Symptoms – Depending on the size and location of the opacity areas, a person can become aware that he is developing cataracts. For example, if it is located at the external border, vision is not affected, but if it is around the center, it usually interferes with vision. When cataracts grow, vision becomes more blurred. This loss of visual clarity is one of the main symptoms of a cataract. Eyes can become more sensible to light, which interferes with driving. Color perception might be altered and in many cases diplopic vision can appear (double vision in the eye where the cataract is developing).

Benefits
The patient will recover soon, both in his ocular and visual aspects. Cataract surgery is ambulatory and you will not need to wear correcting lenses with high diopter.

Technical description
Procedure – facoemulsification is the removal of the affected lens through a small self-closing incision with the help of kinetic energy that causes a needle to vibrate at ultrasonic speed to dissolve and absorb the cataract. Once this is over, an intra-ocular lens is placed to restore vision. This technique seldom requires sutures.
Extra capsular extraction: it is the extraction of the whole cataract through a bigger incision that does require sutures. Recovery is slower than in facoemulsification.

Hospitalization – Generally it is not necessary.