1.Which cataracts can be considered for surgery Various types of cataracts can be operated as long as they affect vision and life. 1. Immature cataract or mature cataract; 2. Glaucoma cataract or post-operative glaucoma cataract; 3. Diabetic cataract; 4. Medium to high myopic cataract; 5. Traumatic cataract; 6. Congenital cataract; 7. Complicated cataract due to other reasons. Many elderly people do not want to have cataract surgery, when is the right time to have cataract surgery?
Cataract is a common disease among the elderly, but many elderly people have been unwilling to have surgery after learning of the disease. “Some patients, because they are afraid of surgery, bought some drugs advertised on the market and used several courses of treatment according to the instructions, but they did not see any effect, but on the contrary, they could not see anything more, and finally had to come to the hospital for surgery. ” In the past, due to the limitation of medical technology, cataracts had to wait until they were completely “mature” and the affected eyes could not see before surgery, and patients had to endure the trouble and pain of low vision for a long time. Nowadays, with the application and development of cataract ultrasonic emulsion aspiration combined with IOL implantation, the safety and effectiveness of cataract surgery have been greatly improved, and patients do not have to wait until they are completely blind before having surgery. Cataract surgery is not complicated, and the entire procedure takes only ten minutes, and is neither painful nor frightening. “We once operated on a 100-year-old man without any problems. Therefore, the elderly should first overcome their psychological fears, and secondly, if they have diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, they should first get their blood pressure and blood sugar under control, and then come back for surgery. When exactly should I have surgery? For different patients, how early or late they receive surgery can cause different results. Currently in developed countries patients receive surgery when their vision is 0.6 or higher in order to obtain a driver’s license. We generally consider patients to be ready to consider surgery when their vision is 0.4-0.5 with proper glasses. At present, the main surgical method is ultrasound emulsion surgery. This method has a small surgical incision of 2~3mm, no suture, fast post-operative recovery, small astigmatism and few complications.
3. Is there an age limit for cataract surgery? As China enters an aging society, more and more elderly people need cataract surgery due to the improvement of living standards. There is no uniform age limit for cataract surgery. Some patients’ families think that it is too dangerous to operate on people over 90 years old. This is not the case. Some elderly people are in good health, have stable blood pressure and heart condition, and most cataract surgeries are performed with local anesthesia or spot anesthesia (surface anesthesia), which is very painless, so they can tolerate the surgery. We once performed a smooth surgery for a 100-year-old man, and improved his quality of life from invisible before surgery to 0.8 after surgery, which greatly improved his quality of life. The old painter Su Juxian lived to 114 years old and was 104 years old at the time of cataract surgery. Therefore, whether one can bear cataract surgery does not depend on age, but on the patient’s physical condition.
4.After cataract surgery in one eye, why is it good to have surgery in the other eye as soon as possible?
Patients often feel eye discomfort after one eye surgery, including eye dryness, foreign body sensation, something in the eye, and slight difference in the color of seeing things. In fact, this is because of the interference of the non-operated eye with the vision of the operated eye. If the other eye is operated as soon as possible, many people’s original discomfort disappears quickly. Especially highly myopic patients should choose to have surgery as soon as possible so that they can get glasses as soon as possible after surgery and get binocular vision.
5. Is there any danger of not having surgery for severe cataracts?
Surgery is undoubtedly the best way to treat cataracts, but it is not necessary to operate immediately when you have cataracts, as the best time for cataract surgery has been mentioned above. This is a very wrong and dangerous view. These eye diseases mostly occur in the middle and late stages of cataract, such as expansion stage and overripe stage, which can not only cause blindness, but also sometimes cause serious inflammation in the eye, resulting in atrophy of the eyeball. Some patients may have to have their eyeballs removed as a last resort due to chronic eye pain that is unbearable. Therefore, it reminds us that cataracts must be treated surgically when they reach a certain level.