CATARACT
What is the cataract?
It is the progressive clouding of the natural lens of the eye.
the left eye has an incipient and the right a severe cataract
The causes of the cataract
The cataract is usually age related. Other possible causes are: some medications (cortison), eye injuries (cataracta traumatica) or eyes inflammations (cataracta complicata). It can also be congenital (cataracta congenita)
The symptoms of the cataract?
A patient with cataract has blurriness of vision as well as reduction of the color and contrast definition.
Like that is the vision of somebody with cataract compared to a healthy one.
The treatment of the cataract
The cataract can only be cured with an operation. The cataract operation is nowadays microsurgical and minimally invasive. The technique used is called phacoemulsification. Ultrasound energy is basically used to remove the natural lens and then it is replaced with an artificial intraocular lens.
Eye with with an artificial intraocular lens after the cataract operation
What is the posterior capsule opacification (PCO):
Very often the capsule posterior to the artificial lens becomes clouded. This situation is called PCO and it can be easily and painless treated with the YAG laser capsulotomy.
PCO on the slit lamp
