Laser Eye Surgery Articles                

A cataract is caused when the lens at the front of your eye becomes clouded due to natural proteins in the eye.

This disrupts the light entering the eye, causing blurred vision, which needs to be removed using cataract surgery.

Such cataract surgery will remove the cloudy natural lens from your eye and replace it with an artificial lens, which, while sounding like a serious operation, is actually carried out on 40% of the over 75 population and should be quick and painless.

Before cataract corrective surgery, you will be given eye drops to dilate your pupils, as well as local anaesthetic drops, to numb the eye (although occasionally, an injection will be used).

The lens of the eye that is removed and replaced is held in by another part of the eye, which is called the posterior lens capsule.

The surgery involves a small cut made in the surface of the eye, before an ultrasound tool is placed into the eye to break up the cloudy lens for removal.

The old lens is then removed via the small cut using a very small tube, after which the artificial lens is inserted folded through the small opening.

The artificial lens then opens itself up inside the eye and acts as a permanent replacement. It is not uncommon after surgery for patients to suffer cloudy vision again, which is caused by cells growing between the new lens and the back of the posterior lens capsule.

This is more likely to happen if you are young when you have cataract surgery, although it is a common problem for all age groups a few years after the surgery.

This secondary problem is the 'cataract' problem that is treated using laser cataract surgery - not the actual cataract itself.

A procedure known as capsulotomy is performed using a low energy laser, which is directed to remove a small section of the posterior lens capsule. Doing this allows light to pass through the eye again, restoring clear vision.

This corrective eye surgery is targeted to cut away enough of the posterior lens capsule to allow clear vision, while leaving enough to still hold the lens securely in place.

This surgery is also quick and pain free and you are unlikely to notice the work that is being done, as the laser itself is not visible, although there will be a guidance light on the equipment, accompanied by quiet clicking noises as the laser works.

With this type of treatment, you should notice an improvement immediately after the operation, in a similar way to primary cataract surgery.

However, unlike the main cataract surgery, the possible laser stage does not require your eyes to always be dressed afterwards and does not require any stitches (although this is also very rare in primary cataract surgery).

The rates of complications in cataract surgery are very low (estimated at 2% or below). Complications tend to relate to infections, although sometimes there can be changes to permanent vision.

However, any such problems can be resolved by laser corrective eye surgery.