At present, as the age structure of China’s population is aging, the number of people blinded by senile cataracts will increase greatly. However, there are still some misconceptions about cataract surgery, so that the best time for surgery is missed, which reduces the post-operative visual quality and even causes serious consequences of blindness.
Myth 1: Surgery can only be done after the cataract has matured. In the past, cataract surgery, extracapsular extraction or intracapsular extraction of cataract, was required at the mature or near mature stage of cataract. Too early would cause inconvenience to the surgery. Moreover, due to the economic conditions and living standards of most patients in the past, often patients waited until they were almost blind before requesting surgical treatment. At present, cataract ultrasonic phacoemulsification extraction combined with IOL implantation is mainly used. The surgery is operated under a microscope, and compared with the previous cataract surgery methods, the incision is small, efficient, safe and the surgery is more effective. A mature cataract will make the surgery more difficult and affect the surgical results, so usually doctors do not recommend patients to delay the surgery until the cataract is mature. Timely surgery can improve vision and standard of living in advance. At present, it is considered that cataracts can be operated after they have developed to a certain extent, affecting vision and living standards, and after the corresponding contraindications have been excluded.
Myth 2: Summer surgery affects the post-operative recovery effect Many patients worry that the heat in summer will easily make them sweat and affect the surgical effect, which is actually completely unnecessary. At present, cataract ultrasound emulsification combined with IOL implantation is characterized by small trauma, short time (usually only ten minutes) and fast recovery. Patients usually improve their vision on the second day after surgery. The surgical incision is very small (about 2-3 mm) and usually does not require sutures, resulting in a quicker post-operative recovery. Usually the risk of surgical infection is very low (about 1 in 1,000), and the hygiene conditions are now much better than before. As long as the medical advice is followed and eye drops are ordered on time, this risk is completely controllable and there is no need to choose the surgical season for this reason.
Myth 3: Cataracts in only one eye can be operated without cataracts. Cataracts generally develop in both eyes one after another, and after one eye is blinded by mature cataracts, the other eye will also be seriously affected by the development of cataract clouding within a certain period of time. Therefore, patients who have lost their eyesight in one eye but still have a little vision in the other eye should have surgery in time, otherwise, surgery after both eyes are blind will greatly affect patients’ quality of life.
Myth 4: The result of cataract surgery is the same with any kind of IOL. Cataract surgery requires removal of the cloudy lens first and then implantation of an IOL, so implantation of a suitable IOL with good quality plays a decisive role in the post-operative result. The IOL must have good material stability, no carcinogenic effect, good biocompatibility, no blood clotting, no swelling, no allergy or allergic reaction, good optical properties, and no change in refractive power when placed in the eye for a long time.
The cost of surgery varies greatly depending on the IOL used and can make the post-operative results different as well. Some new materials and newly designed crystals can improve the visual quality of patients after surgery, such as aspheric crystals, toric crystals, multifocal crystals, blue light filtering crystals, heparin-treated crystals and other new IOLs have been introduced, which can also have other different functions while improving patients’ vision, giving cataract patients more choices.
Myth 5: Surgery must be dangerous when you are too old Many patients and their families worry that surgery is dangerous when they are too old, and even give up treatment because of this.
At present, cataract surgery takes a short time (usually ten minutes) and there is no significant pain during the operation. Before surgery, the surgeon will usually give the patient a general examination to rule out contraindications to surgery. Eye examinations are also performed including visual acuity and visual function tests, intraocular pressure tests, retinal function tests, and corneal curvature tests. The surgery is very safe when systemic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease are controlled by medications.
To sum up, there are some misconceptions about cataract surgery among some elderly people at present, which lead to missing the best time for surgery. It is better to go to the ophthalmologist for examination and timely surgery.