THE REAL VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY CONSISTS NOT IN SEEKING NEW LANDSCAPES BUT IN HAVING NEW EYES Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in people above 50 years, according to the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey India(2015-19).As of 2021, cataract causes vision loss to over 66.2% of India’s population of people between 50 to 90 years. The government has taken extensive measures to begin the clearance of the backlog of cataract surgeries that have piled up during COVID. Over the years, the treatment has undergone significant technological innovations and is currently a painless and minimally invasive surgery that does not require hospitalization.
Inside our eye, we have a natural lens. This lens acts like a camera. The lens bends light rays that enter the eye in a manner that the rays fall on the retina and help us see clearly.
However, as age increases, the lens loses its transparency and starts to get cloudy. This is the onset of cataract. The earliest eye cataract symptom is increased glare and decrease in night vision. With increase in cataract, your vision will start getting blurred and this affects your routine activities. The proteins in your eye’s lens start to break down around age 40. But you typically won’t notice symptoms until age 60 or later. Certain medical conditions, like diabetes, may cause you to have symptoms sooner.
Visit your doctor if you experience changes in your vision. It is important to get your eyes checked right away to avoid any further complications.
If you don’t treat cataract, it may become hyper-mature, a condition which makes it very difficult to remove it or could cause complications during the otherwise-simple surgery.
Cataracts can be treated with simple surgery. It’s an outpatient surgery. The success rate of cataract surgery is very high as 95 percent of people who have got the surgery done to say they can see better afterward. Cataract surgery in todays era is no longer about just removal of cataract and putting in lens. With the modern technology, we can plan the cataract surgery using sophisticated diagnostic tools to achieve minimal to no refractive error or power after cataract surgery and to maximize your vision.
Post the cataract surgery, patients could feel itching and mild discomfort, while fluid discharge is also common. However, after a day or two, discomfort should disappear. The problem after surgery is very rare, so your recovery time should be short and uneventful, provided a timely surgery is done.