With continuous scientific research and technology breakthrough particular in the medical field, new inventions are constantly introduced into eye cataract surgery. One of the latest and could be considered as the significant development in cataract surgery is the use of topical anesthesia and the introductions of Multifocal IOLs and Toric IOLs.
Topical anesthesia is very helpful as it eliminates the need to bear painful injection by the patient. In the past, surgery was done by getting an injection directly into the eye, which of course caused a lot of pain and risk. With topical anesthesia, the whole operation which usually lasts for around 15 minutes is performed without the need of an injection but instead using only eye drops. The great benefit of topical anesthesia is that the patient does not need to bear the risk and pain which involved in normal surgical procedure. Moreover, the results from using this technique are much faster and satisfying. The patient can even go home after resting for some times at the hospital and without a patch.
The second most important development in this field is the introduction of better and more advanced of intraocular lens or IOLs and new software technology that being used in a surgery procedure. In the past, a cataract surgery is done with simply involved the removing of the cloudy lens from the eye. As technology advanced, anterior chamber intraocular lenses were developed and these artificial lenses were implanted in the front of the iris to replace the removed clouded lens. These lenses worked extremely well, however, over time the cornea could be damaged due to vibration of the lenses that caused by aqueous fluid from the back of the eye toward the front. And this process results in swollen cornea and cloudy vision.
To deal with the problem, posterior chambers intraocular lenses were developed. Unlike the previous artificial lenses which were placed in the front of the iris, these intraocular lenses were instead placed behind the iris. This new placement structure eliminates the vibrations and thus, preventing the cornea from further damage. Over the years of continuous improvements, better quality, smaller, softer and flexible lenses were introduced. These lenses can be implanted with very small incision and which this could reduce the risk during surgery and which at the same time also shorten the recovery time.
The sole purpose of the standard IOLs is to treat cataract and enable the patients to have their vision back. This lens does not cure or rectify any other vision problem besides cataract. And to overcome this problem, multifocal intraocular lenses were introduced. These types of lenses were designed to provide the patients full range of vision from distant to near without or reduce the need of eyeglasses to assist in seeing. Since multifocal IOLs is better and more advanced, they will cost more compare to standard IOLs.
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