About Cataract Surgery

Your cataract operation begins with a few sets of drops being placed in your eye to dilate your pupil. Your eye will then be treated with an anesthetic-almost always a few additional sets of drops to numb the surface of your eye-so that you will feel little if anything during your surgery. In addition you will be given a tablet to swallow to help you relax. The femtosecond laser is a precise and gentle tool our cataract surgeons can use to deliver an extra margin of safety and quick visual recovery. At the beginning of the procedure, the laser is used to painlessly and precisely correct whereby laser incisions are created to correct the oval shape of the cornea, inducing it to become round, improving the vision. In addition, the laser can be used to open the lens and soften the clouded lens itself to make cataract removal gentler & safer. This preparatory procedure takes less than 10 minutes.

Next, your cataract surgeon will make a very small incision at the outermost edge of your cornea. This incision will be just large enough to allow a microscopic instrument the size of a pen tip to pass through it. It is possible to for your cataract surgeon to make this tiny incision with a traditional instrument, or using the laser if you are having laser cataract surgery.

Then, your eye surgeon will gently pass a microscopic instrument through the tiny incision and create an opening in the capsule of the crystalline lens to allow access to the cloudy lens material. This step, called “capsulotomy” also can be performed by your surgeon either manually or with the laser if you are having a laser cataract surgery procedure.

Your cataract surgeon will gently pass another sophisticated high technology microscopic instrument through the tiny incision. Sound waves or “Ultrasound” produced at the tip of the instrument will be used to gently break the cataract into pieces small enough to be washed away, drawn through the instrument and removed from your eye. This cataract removal technique is called “phacoemulsification” and is preferred for most patients.

After the cataract has been removed, your eye surgeon will be able to insert a new, crystal clear permanent Intraocular Lens Implant (IOL) into your eye. The replacement lens will actually be inserted and placed in the correct position through the same tiny incision at the outer edge of the cornea through which the surgeon removed the cataract.

Upon completion of your cataract and lens implant surgery, one of the surgery center staff members will take you to a comfortable place where you will be able to rest and relax prior to going home. After resting for a short while, a surgery staff member will give you permission to have a family member or friend drive you home.

Your surgeon will arrange to see you at The Eye Care & Surgery within 24 hours of your cataract and lens implant surgery so he or she can examine you in order to confirm that you are healing and seeing as planned. The doctors will also prescribe some eye drops for you to use and may ask you to wear a protective shield, mainly at night, to remind you not to accidentally rub your eye. Although each patient will heal a little bit differently, the majority of patients having cataract surgery at The Eye Care & Surgery Center are able to see well enough to return to their routine daily activities within a day or so after their cataract surgery.