Mr. Ding, aged 10, has always been in good health, but he had cataracts ten years ago, and has been using cataract eye solution for many years. At the beginning of last year, he came to our specialist clinic and his vision was only 0.2 in both eyes, and the cataract was more obvious. I suggested that he receive surgery, but Mr. Ding insisted on waiting until he was “ripe” before he could have surgery. One day last week, Mr. Ding, who had not been seen for a year, barged into the clinic covering his right eye and crying out in pain, saying that last night his right eye suddenly became distended and painful and his vision plummeted, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. He was diagnosed with cataract secondary to glaucoma, and his vision was only manually in front of his eyes. After giving medication to control the pressure, I operated on him, but unfortunately, due to his cataract being too mature, the most advanced ultrasonic cataract surgery could not be performed, so he was operated with a large incision cataract extraction instead.
Afterwards, I talked with Lao Ding in detail about several misconceptions in cataract treatment: Misconception 1: You must wait until the cataract is mature to operate, otherwise it will not be clean and will recur.
Traditional cataract surgery is limited by technology and can only be done when the cataract has reached the mature stage or close to it (the patient is nearly blind). Also during cataract maturation, there is a possibility of complications. In the immature stage, the lens swells and makes the anterior chamber shallow, which can trigger a major attack of angle-closure glaucoma. Cataracts in the overripe stage can cause lens allergic uveitis or lens dissolving glaucoma. In mild cases, it can affect the effectiveness of cataract surgery treatment, and in severe cases, it can lead to irreversible blindness. Nowadays, with the development of microsurgery and the application of ultrasound emulsification technology, surgery can be done as long as the vision is lower than normal and affects work and life, thus greatly improving the quality of life of cataract patients.
Myth 2: Drugs can treat cataracts.
Some patients order cataract eye drops all year round, and some even listen to unfounded advertisements and decide that certain proprietary Chinese medicines can make cataract cure. These treatments do not provide effective treatment and can delay the best time for treatment and cause other eye diseases. To date, no truly effective cataract medicine has been released worldwide. The effective treatment for cataracts is still surgery.
Myth 3: There is no need for surgery when you are older.
Advanced ultrasonic cataract surgery has broken through the age limit and can be performed on anyone from a 3-month-old baby to a 100-year-old man. Because the procedure is short (ten minutes), it is basically painless. Most of the many cataract patients performed by the author are around 80 years old, and all of them can bear the surgery and see the beautiful world and their familiar family members after the surgery, which improves the quality of life.
Myth 4: Surgery is ineffective when the fundus is bad.
Some patients with high myopia, diabetes or macular degeneration think that their fundus is bad and surgery is ineffective, thus they refuse surgery and let cataracts develop. In addition, cataract can interfere with the observation of the fundus and delay the observation and treatment of fundus lesions.
Myth 5: It is dangerous to do surgery for hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease and other diseases. Ultrasonic cataract extraction has a short duration and small incision, and is a minimally invasive surgery. As long as blood pressure, blood sugar and cardiac function are controlled within a relatively normal range before surgery, it is completely possible to operate.
Mr. Ding returned to our hospital one month after his right eye surgery to undergo cataract ultrasound emulsification surgery on his left eye. Compared with his right eye, the vision of his left eye improved greatly, reaching 0.8, and his postoperative reaction was also very mild.
The above myths are common among elderly cataract patients. Only by avoiding the myths and treating cataract correctly at the right time can we obtain ideal results.