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Health Tip - Cataract

Health Tip - Cataract

Cataract Causes

The lens is made mostly of water and protein. Specific proteins within the lens are responsible for maintaining its clarity. Over many years, the structures of these lens proteins are altered, ultimately leading to a gradual clouding of the lens. Rarely, cataracts can present at birth or in early childhood as a result of hereditary enzyme defects, and severe trauma to the eye, eye surgery, or intraocular inflammation can also cause cataracts to occur earlier in life. Other factors that may lead to development of cataracts at an earlier age include excessive ultraviolet-light exposure, diabetes, smoking, or the use of certain medications, such as oral, topical, or inhaled steroids. Other medications that are more weakly associated with cataracts include the long-term use of statins and phenothiazines

Signs and Symptoms of cataracts include:

  • Clouded, blurred or dim vision.
  • Increasing difficulty with vision at night.
  • Sensitivity to light and glare.
  • Seeing "halos" around lights.
  • Frequent changes in eyeglass or contact lens prescription.
  • Fading or yellowing of colors.
  • Double vision in a single eye.

At first, the cloudiness in your vision caused by a cataract may affect only a small part of the eye's lens and you may be unaware of any vision loss. As the cataract grows larger, it clouds more of your lens and distorts the light passing through the lens. This may lead to signs and symptoms you're more likely to notice.

Types of Cataracts

All cataracts are fundamentally a change in the clarity of the overall lens structure; however, cataracts may result either early in life or as a result of aging, and different portions of the lens may be more affected than others. Cataracts that occur at birth or present very early in life (during the first year of life) are termed congenital or infantile cataracts. These cataracts require prompt surgical correction or they may prevent the vision in the affected eye from developing normally. When the central portion of the lens is most affected, which is the most common situation, these are termed nuclear cataracts. The outside of the lens is called the lens cortex, and when opacities are most visible in this region, the cataracts are called cortical cataracts. There is an even more specific change that occasionally happens, when the opacity develops immediately next to the lens capsule, either by the anterior, or more commonly the posterior, portion of the capsule; these are called subcapsular cataracts. Unlike most cataracts, posterior subcapsular cataracts can develop rather quickly and affect vision more suddenly than either nuclear or cortical cataracts.

Exams and Tests

To detect a cataract, the eye-care provider examines your lens. A comprehensive eye examination usually includes the following:

  • Visual acuity test: An eye chart test is used to measure your reading and distance vision.
  • Refraction: Your eye doctor should determine if glasses would improve your vision.
  • Glare testing: Vision may be significantly altered in certain lighting conditions and normal in others; in these circumstances, your doctor may check your glare symptoms with a variety of different potential lighting sources..
  • Contrast sensitivity testing: This checks for your ability to differentiate different shades of gray, which is often this limited by cataracts.
  • Tonometry: a standard test to measure fluid pressure inside the eye (Increased pressure may be a sign of glaucoma.).
  • Pupil dilation: The pupil is enlarged with eye drops so that the ophthalmologist can further examine the lens and retina. This is important to determine if there are other conditions which may ultimately limit your vision besides cataracts.

Cataract Treatment

Surgery - The standard cataract surgical procedure is typically performed in either a hospital or in an ambulatory surgery center. The most common form of cataract surgery today is a process called phacoemulsification. With the use of an operating microscope, your surgeon will make a very small incision in the surface of the eye in or near the cornea. A thin ultrasound probe is inserted into the eye that uses ultrasonic vibrations to dissolve (phacoemulsify) the clouded lens. These tiny fragmented pieces are then suctioned out through the same ultrasound probe. Once the cataract is removed, an artificial lens is placed into the same thin capsular bag that the cataract occupied. This intraocular lens is essential to help your eye focus after surgery.

There are three basic techniques for cataract surgery:

  • Phacoemulsification: This is the most common form of cataract removal as explained above. In this most modern method, cataract surgery can usually be performed in less than 30 minutes and usually requires only minimal sedation and numbing drops, no stitches to close the wound, and no eye patch after surgery.
  • Extracapsular cataract surgery: This procedure is used mainly for very advanced cataracts where the lens is too dense to dissolve into fragments (phacoemulsify) or in facilities that do not have phacoemulsification technology. This technique requires a larger incision so that the cataract can be removed in one piece without being fragmented inside the eye. An artificial lens is placed in the same capsular bag as with the phacoemulsification technique. This surgical technique requires a various number of sutures to close the larger wound, and visual recovery is often slower. Extracapsular cataract extraction usually requires an injection of numbing medication around the eye and an eye patch after surgery.
  • Intracapsular cataract surgery: This surgical technique requires an even larger wound than extracapsular surgery, and the surgeon removes the entire lens and the surrounding capsule together. This technique requires the intraocular lens to be placed in a different location, in front of the iris. This method is rarely used today but can be still be useful in cases of significant trauma. This surgery has become obsolete now.

Contributed by:

Gourav Kataria
AmSure Delhi (Jasola)
Ground & First Floor. Elegance Tower.
Plot No 8, Non Hierachical Tower. Commercial Centre. Jasola. New Delhi - 110025

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