Cataract Surgery

I'm am having a cataract removed from my right eye in the morning. The doctor says it will only take him 6 minutes to do the procedure. Does that sound right?

The actual procedure, work, is very quick because it's done with a laser... how long you're in the office before and after is up to your doctor but shouldn't be long at all.

kempo wrote:I'm am having a cataract removed from my right eye in the morning. The doctor says it will only take him 6 minutes to do the procedure. Does that sound right?

Cataract surgery has undoubtedly changed in the last ten years. I had it done to both eyes back about 2001. The actual surgery took about 15 minutes, so modifying the procedure and tools to bring it down to 6 minutes sounds reasonable to me. It's a pretty straightforward operation. Essentially the doc cuts a slit in your cornea and lens, then reaches in to the inner part of the lens with a combination vibrator/vacuum. The vibration emulsifies the lens into liquid which is then sucked out. He then takes a plastic lens that has a couple of whiskers on it, folds it up like a burrito and pops it into the lens sack. The whiskers spread out, the lens unfolds out flat, and is centered in the lens sack. It eventually gets locked into place with gel fluid or tissue of some sort.

As you can see the term cataract removal is a bit of a misnomer. It's better referred to as lens replacement or lens implant. One of the best medical procedures I've ever had done. I was severely near sighted before so my vision was corrected about 90% with the implant. Both eyes were brought close to the same vision correctness. Because of astigmatism I still wear glasses but they are a lot thinner than they used to be! My world enlarged about 10% because of the physics of light refraction with the implants vs natural lens. It also lightened up significantly. During the month between doing the right and left eye I noticed that white paper looked at with my 'old' eye was the same color as a manilla folder looked at with my 'new' eye.

The only downside is that the plastic lens is not flexible and so does not change shape to focus light from different distances. You will need reading glasses if your eyes are set for distance. If you're having both eyes done you have the option of having one set for reading distance and the other for distance focus. Your doc should have discussed all this with you by now.

Soooo, have no fear. You'll be superbly happy at having it done!

Julie wrote:The actual procedure, work, is very quick because it's done with a laser... how long you're in the office before and after is up to your doctor but shouldn't be long at all.

From what I find lasers are in developmental status as a tool to do the emulsification. They have been used for some time to poke a hole in the lens sack if there is a light transmission restriction, but that is usually done after the lens implant. Otherwise, cataract surgery remains a mechanical process.

Are you by chance thinking of LASIK surgery, which is laser based? LASIK is a procedure to reshape the cornea. It does not involve the lens.

I have cataracts in both eyes but my right eye has gotten to where everything at a distance looks like I'm looking through a dirty window.

kempo wrote:I have cataracts in both eyes but my right eye has gotten to where everything at a distance looks like I'm looking through a dirty window.

After you have this one done you'll have a clear (pun intended) idea just how bad the left eye is. If it's enough to bother you I'd encourage you to ask the doctor to do it as soon as he can get the insurance company to buy into it. I had mine done when headlights at night splayed out so much I could hardly see to drive. When I asked the doc about it and what if any issue there would be with insurance coverage he said insurance approval would be no problem. I had it scheduled within a few weeks!

kempo wrote:I'm am having a cataract removed from my right eye in the morning. The doctor says it will only take him 6 minutes to do the procedure. Does that sound right?

Your eye doctor doesn't look like John Belushi and wear Japanese robes, does he?

I have been looking for this topic for a long time, thank you so much

My Wife just had cataract surgery. The Doctor said that it would take 25 minutes. I was back in the room with her in less then 15
minutes. For the next month she will need drops put in her eye.She didn't experience any pain.

Ok. It's done. The Doctor didn"t lie. One hour for prep and six minutes on surgery. No pain what so ever. I have a patch over my right eye with holes in it. The eye is still dilated but I can already tell colors are brighter. Got to go back to Doctors office at noon for a follow up.

Archangle my Doc looks more like Clint Eastwood without the 44 magnum.

This is what I understand based on research I have done. Double check with your doctor:

There are three types of IOL (replacement lenses)currently available
1 Fixed single focus this is what medicare pays for and what I have. They decide ahead of time what your focus distance will be. You will generally be set to a long focus. You may be able to drive without glasses unless you have an astigmatism (eye out of round causes this). You will need reading glasses for fine work.

2 Multifocus. Each lens has different shapes built into the lens. you get multiple focus points and rely on the brain ignoring the extra images. Some people can get away with no glasses. These are thousands of dollars in aditional costs which you will need to pay out of pocket.

3. Flexible. One brand approved in the USA. Focusable. best chance no longer to need glasses at any distance. Much more expensive than the multifocus

Note some people are not a good candidate for some of these lenses. A doctor may tell you that you are not a good candidate for one or more of these and they may not work with a specific type of lens. Almost everybody can tolerate 1 but many find 2 always fuzzy and evetually ask to have them replaced by #1 which is a nasty surgury

There is also something called monovision. Fixed lenses. One eye focused close and one at infinity. so glasses are not needed for reading or driving. you just use only one eye for each. I think this would drive me crazy.

I was amazed at the clear vision and colors after cateract surgery. I found that I had been selecting wrong color paint chips for years. Everything had a beige hue to it. Now, things are so bright, I have to wear sunglasses outside most of the time. Both my wife and I were given a choice of standard implants at no additional charge or a brand of flexible lenses called Crystalens at an additional price of $3,700 for each of us. Our opthamologist really did a sales job on us. Sadly, for us, they do not work as well as stated. Neither of us are able to get the lenses to fully focus as they are advertised, If we had it to do over again, we would have selected the standard implants (price covered) with reading glasses, since we both require reading glasses with the Crystalens.

Again, the 'ultimate' product is sold before it is perfected.
Simple is often the best. (Just not with blowers)

SMenasco wrote:I was amazed at the clear vision and colors after cateract surgery.

My experience also. I had both eyes done in 2001, about a month apart. During the interim a manilla folder had the same color with the 'new' eye that a pure white one had with the 'old' eye! And because of the correction of the implant, my world enlarged by about 10%! The same object viewed with the 'new' eye was about 10% larger than viewing with the 'old' eye.

After putting it off for a year, I finally had both eyes done two weeks apart about two months ago. I was just too nearsighted to only have one corrected. I also had bad astigmatism fixed, so I had to pay a bundle out of pocket, because insurance won't pay for the Toric IOLs to correct it. They figure you can just wear glasses. I wanted accommodating IOLs (Crystalens. even a bigger bundle of cash), which allow you to focus at various distances, but accommodating, astigmatism correcting IOLs have not yet been FDA approved. So now I can see from 10 feet to infinity crystal clear,without glasses, but I need reading glasses for seeing clearly at about 8 to 18 inches, and intermediate (aka computer) glasses for about 2 to 7 feet (not that I can't see within 2 to 7 feet, just not clearly enough to reads the titles of books on a bookshelf, or clearly see items on a store shelf. I got bifocals to cover both prescriptions. It's a PITA, because I used to just put on my glasses when I got out of bed, and not give it another thought. That said about my near vision problems, I don't have any problem reading the speedometer, or odometer without glasses.