The eyes are the windows to the world. However, for cataract patients, it is like a piece of cloth over the clear window – the lens in the eye ages or becomes diseased and cloudy, the light is blocked by the cloudy lens and cannot be projected onto the retina, from blurred vision to loss of light ……
Therefore, once you find out the possibility of cataract, you should pay full attention to it and treat it early. When you can’t see well and see things blurred, you should go to the hospital for examination. Want to say goodbye to cataracts? You need to know these things about cataracts: 1. Can cataracts cause blindness?
Cataract is the eye disease with the highest blindness rate in China, with 47%. According to statistical surveys, the incidence of cataracts in China is about 80% for people aged 60 to 89, and more than 90% for people aged 90 and above. 30% of people aged 50 and above are visually impaired, mainly due to cataracts.
2, only the elderly will get cataract?
According to the research data, because of excessive eye use, the average time that people stare at the screen is up to 37 hours per week, and many people spend about one-third of their time on the screen every day, resulting in more and more young people and middle-aged people having cataracts at a very early stage. Cataracts are no longer the “preserve” of the elderly. When you find that over a period of time, your vision suddenly decreases very quickly, or when you see things more and more blurred, you should beware, and go to the hospital to check your eyes in time!
3. Can cataracts be cured with medicine?
Knowing that you have cataract, you heard that you can take medicine or apply eye cream to cure it? So far, there is no special medicine that can eliminate cataracts, and medicine can only play a supplementary role. To cure cataracts, you must have surgery. Don’t believe in propaganda and spend money and delay seeing a doctor!
Surgery is the only effective means to treat cataracts. The epidemiological survey shows that there are about 11 million patients with serious cataracts in China, and only 2 million cataract surgeries can be performed each year, which is just enough to meet the 1.5 million new patients each year.
4. Do cataracts need to wait until they are “ripe” before surgery?
In the 1960s and 1970s, because of the limited medical level and medical equipment, cataract surgery needed to peel off the crystal, which would be easier if it was harder and “riper” (meaning the lens was basically cloudy). However, since the introduction and promotion of ultrasound emulsification surgery in China in the 1990s, this concept has become outdated.
The riper and harder the cataract grows, the greater the time and energy used for ultrasound crushing, the greater the damage to the eye and the greater the risk of surgery, so it is better to do cataract surgery earlier, and once it affects your life, you should receive cataract surgery. The general standard is that cataract patients should have surgery when their vision is reduced to 0.3~0.5. There are also some patients with special requirements, although their vision is better than 0.5, but the degree of cataract has affected daily behaviors such as work, study and driving a car, they should also receive surgery early.
5.Is cataract surgery very complicated?
Cataract surgery is usually performed by surface anesthesia, through a very small incision, using ultrasonic hormone to break up and remove the lens, and then replacing the cloudy lens with an artificial lens. The surgery is completed in 5~10 minutes with no significant discomfort to the patient.
6. Can’t I have cataract surgery if I have diabetes?
Some patients think that they cannot have cataract surgery because they have diabetes, or they think that the surgery is not effective and give up the treatment. These thoughts are wrong. Not only can diabetic cataract be operated, but it should be done early, and the vision should be reduced to 0.5, as long as it affects life.
Diabetic patients usually have high blood sugar, low blood zinc, harder to heal wounds and pupils that are not easily dilated, etc. If they wait for cataract to develop to an advanced stage before surgery, it will greatly increase the difficulty and risk of surgery; this period also greatly increases the chance of complications, such as the occurrence of complications like uveitis and neovascular glaucoma, which can reach the level of blindness in serious cases and eventually lose the chance of surgical treatment.
As long as diabetic patients control their blood sugar well, cataract surgery can be performed smoothly and the vast majority of patients can achieve good postoperative vision. Clinically, fasting blood glucose value is one of the important reference indicators for surgical treatment, and surgical treatment can be chosen within the range of ≤8.9 mmol/L. Before surgery, we should control the diet and eat less sweet food and other foods that rise sugar quickly.
7. Too old to do cataract surgery?
Cataracts should be done when they have developed to a certain extent. If the patient is generally in good condition, surgery should be done regardless of whether he or she is 60 or 90 years old, because as the onset of the disease gets longer, excessive aging of the lens will also produce glaucoma and inflammation. Even some people in the early stage of cataract, due to the sudden acceleration of the disease, can also develop glaucoma, which can cause blindness overnight due to the rapid onset of the disease, and it is too late to have cataract surgery at that time. Therefore, whether cataract surgery can be done or not should be evaluated comprehensively, not simply judged by age.
8. Is the more expensive IOL the better?
There are many types of IOLs, but the more expensive ones are not the more suitable. Doctors will help patients choose according to their situation. If you are doing ultrasound emulsion surgery with a small incision, you will generally choose a small volume of folded soft lens for surgical safety. If you do not see a lot of near objects after the surgery, you can put a monofocal lens to see normal in the distance and wear a fancy lens when you see near objects. If the visual requirements are higher, you can implant a multifocal, trifocal or even an infinitesimal varifocal lens. Artificial lens, just pick the one that suits you!