With the development of femtosecond laser technology, cataract surgery can now be done with the femtosecond laser.
You are bound to get cataracts: According to statistics, the incidence of cataracts is about 35% in people aged 50-60, 80% in people aged 60-70, and even higher in people aged 80 and above. In fact, as long as one lives long enough, all people will suffer from cataracts to a greater or lesser extent, only the degree of difference. About 285 million people in the world suffer from visual impairment for various reasons, of which 39 million suffer from blindness, and cataracts are the leading cause of blindness, accounting for 51% of all blindness. It can be said that cataracts are the most common blinding eye disease. Cataracts, as the name implies, are objects that are “white” and form an “obstacle” to vision “inside” the eye. President Zhou explained that under normal circumstances, the lens is transparent, but if the lens becomes cloudy and prevents light from entering, it is a cataract, which is equivalent to a broken lens in the eye. Most cataracts are age-related diseases. High myopia, diabetes, glaucoma, long-term exposure to sunlight, smoking and alcohol consumption can all cause or worsen cataracts. Some people are also born with the disease, and others develop cataracts after an eye injury or inflammation.
Patients with cataracts often do not feel them in the early stages and are mostly discovered during a physical examination. As the cataract worsens, patients may feel blurred vision, as if a piece of woolly glass has been added in front of their eyes and they cannot see. Some patients may experience darkening of vision, loss of vision at night, and even gradual yellowing and browning of vision, so that the blue and purple colors entering the eyes are reduced accordingly. It is said that the large amount of blue and purple used in Monet’s paintings in his later years may have been caused by cataracts, which felt that there was not enough blue and purple in the picture and filled them in large amounts. It is worth mentioning that the loss of vision caused by cataracts is a slow process. Initially, it may lead to an increase in myopia, so some people who were originally presbyopic find that they do not need to wear presbyopic glasses to see up close, but it is actually a sign that the cataract has worsened. If the cataract proceeds to the mature stage and is still not treated with surgery, serious eye diseases such as glaucoma, uveitis, and lens dislocation may occur.
Femtosecond laser surgery is effective: Regarding the treatment of cataract surgery, President Zhou said that there is no drug that has been proven to be effective in delaying, preventing or treating cataracts. Early stage cataracts can be treated with a trial of medication. Surgery is the most effective means of treating cataracts. Surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear artificial lens, which is a cure for the symptoms and the root cause. There are currently two main surgical procedures for cataract treatment in China, namely traditional extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and cataract ultrasound emulsification (Phaco). Internationally, the more advanced surgical procedure for cataract treatment is femtosecond laser-assisted cataract ultrasound emulsification.
Are there advantages to femtosecond laser cataract surgery?
Traditional cataract removal surgery relies on the surgeon’s personal skill to complete the cataract removal surgery with a scalpel. Femtosecond laser technology, which makes cataract surgery more precise, brings cataract removal surgery into a knifeless era. Director Zhou said that the surgeon simply sets the cutting parameters on the femtosecond laser machine to suit the individual according to the patient’s condition, and the capsule is cut in a centered position with very flat and smooth incision edges. Improving long-term post-operative stability, in addition to reducing intra-operative energy use by completing nucleus fragmentation with the femtosecond laser. There is a clear comparison that patients who have their cataracts removed with the femtosecond laser have very little edema the day after surgery that can occur with the traditional surgical approach. Femtosecond laser cataract surgery is suitable for most cataract patients, especially those who need astigmatism correction and those who need to see near and far at the same time after surgery to get rid of the need for presbyopia. This is because this group of patients requires a more precise surgical design.
When is the best time for cataract surgery?
Cataract patients no longer have to wait until they are completely blind to have surgery, but can have surgery at the right time according to their needs. If you wait until the cataract is fully mature before surgery, on the one hand, it will seriously affect the patient’s life due to visual impairment; on the other hand, overripe cataracts also bring difficulties to the surgery itself and affect the post-operative vision recovery. In addition, some overripe cataracts can induce glaucoma, resulting in the serious consequence of permanent blindness.