Video: Cataracts Information

This video describes cataracts and how cataracts surgery is performed.

Transcript

Cataracts are a part of the aging process, but they do not have to interfere with your lifestyle. A cataract is a cloudiness of the crystalline lens inside your eye. As your lens gets cloudier, your vision will gradually become more blurred.

The human eye may best be compared to a camera. When you take a picture, the lens in the front of the camera allows light through and focuses that light on the film. When the light hits the film, a picture is taken.

The eye works in much the same way. The lens of your eye is clear and allows light to pass through. Light is focused on your cornea and lens onto a thin layer of tissue called the retina. Your retina works like the film in a camera. When the focused light hits the retina, a picture is taken, and sent to your brain.

While a dirty camera lens blurs a picture, any significant cataract in your lens will blur what you see.

Cataract Surgery

Cataract surgery is one of the safest and most commonly performed operations around the world.

First, the surgeon will create an incision in the cornea. This incision is just large enough to pass the surgical instruments through. Following the incision, the surgeon will gently peel off the front layer of the lens. This will allow access to the inner areas of the lens where the cataract has formed.

Next, the surgeon will use a tool to break up the cataract into smaller segments. As the cataract is divided into segments, the surgeon will vacuum the smaller fragments out of the remaining good lens. Once the cataract has been removed, a replacement lens is then inserted into the capsular bag where the natural lens used to be.

In most cases this is an intraocular lens, which is foldable and slips in through the tiny incision. Because the incision is so small, it is often watertight and does not require any sutures, particularly if a foldable lens has been used.