Cataract is an age-related eye disease that mainly manifests as blurred vision, dark shadows in front of the eyes, and double vision. Severe cataracts can affect the quality of life of patients and even lead to other accidents due to poor vision.
There are great individual differences in how early cataracts appear and whether they are serious or not. Early ones need surgery after the age of 40, while late ones do not need surgery when they are deaf and blind at the age of 90. So when is the right time for cataract surgery? It is a question that many people like to guide.
In medical science, the indications for cataract surgery are generally set at corrected visual acuity less than or equal to 0.3. With the improvement of people’s demand for quality of life, colleagues in medical science have been slowly transitioning cataract surgery from restorative surgery to refractive surgery. Surgery can also be considered for patients with corrected visual acuity above 0.3 and below 0.5. For example, a person who drives a lot can be considered for surgery if his corrected vision is 0.4 but it affects his driving safety (the vision of a general driver should be above 0.5) and he proposes surgery because cataract affects not only the quality of life but also his occupational safety.
With newer ophthalmic surgical equipment and medical advances, cataract surgery is now much safer than before, and it has become more confident and common for doctors to choose cataract surgery to solve their patients’ poor vision problems than before. Therefore, if a patient has a cataract and it is affecting his or her quality of life or career, he or she can request surgery from his or her doctor, who will give a decision on whether to operate after a comprehensive judgment.