What is cataract?
The normal transparent lens of the eye becomes opaque and does not allow light to reach the retina and causes progressive drop in vision. This is called cataract.

Why does cataract form?
Cataract is the most common cause of blindness in our country. It is an aging problem caused most probably due to deficiency of protein and vitamins. Ultra violet light exposure (sunlight) is another common cause. Apart from old age (senile cataract) cataract can also occur in children (congenital cataract) or adolescents (developmental cataract). Injuries can produce cataracts in all age groups (traumatic cataract). Patients with diabetes mellitus develop cataract earlier than a normal person.

Symptoms:
- Blurring of vision
- Progressive loss of vision.
- Doubling, distortion of images.
- Increased glare in bright light
- White colouration of pupil.

Treatment:
The only treatment available to cure cataract is surgery. Apart from mature cataracts, even immature cataracts need to be removed if the patients’s visual requirements demand it. There is no need to wait for the cataract to ripen as in earlier days, as the quality of surgery has improved remarkably during these days.

Phacoemulsification / Manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS)
Small incision cataract surgery is increasingly gaining popularity as compared to a large incision of 15mm with 10 or more sutures, used previously to remove cataract. The nucleus can be brought out through a small self-sealing tunnel either manually or using ultra sound probe.

Phacoemulsification is a method of removing cataract through small incision by means of ultrasonic energy, which emulsifies the cataract. It involves highly sophisticated technology, cost and lot of training on the part of the surgeon. The incision size is 2.5-3 mm and no suture is required because of the tunnel incision, which is self-sealing.

The intraocular lenses implanted may be foldable or Non foldable, of which the foldable lens is definitely a better option, because it retains the incision size at 3mm. Silicone and acrylic foldable IOL’s are generally used, of which the latter is a better option especially in diabetics. Nowadays Multifocal lenses are slowly coming to stay. With these lenses the dependence on glasses for both near and distant vision is minimised.

Advantage of Phacoemulsification / SICS :
Hospital stay is minimised to few hours only.
The patient’s wound healing is very fast as wound size is small.
Clear vision is restored very fast.
The need for glasses is minimised (although reading and more minute tasks may need correction).
The best quality of vision is obtained.
Patient can get back to routine work faster than ever before.

When we compare the disadvantages of traditional surgery, inability to attend work or business for several weeks or months, poor vision etc., we can appreciate that the marginal increase in cost of surgery is more than compensated. Lasers are being used to make some steps of cataract surgery simpler and mainly for after cataract, which is the opacification of posterior capsule occurring in 25% of cases, months or years after cataract operation and can be easily treated using Nd-YAG laser as a painless, outpatient procedure.
Phacoemulsification will remain the best modality of treating cataract until some such “non-touch” technique of curing cataract makes a break through.

Your eyes deserve the best, without compromise!