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.
Phakic intraocular lenses (phakic IOL) or commonly known as implantable contact lenses are lenses that are implanted into the eye so that they could work with the crystalline lens to correct myopia or farsightedness – a state where the person involved could not see far distance object clearly. Implantable contact lenses can correct a wider range of myopia compares to a laser refractive procedure. And this is the reason why it is more preferred nowadays compares to the latter.
Unlike an intraocular lens which will replace the eye’s natural lens completely, an implantable contact lens is an additional lens that placed into the eye to work together with the eye’s natural lens.
Refractive cataract surgery can be considered a new term in the glossary of vision reconstruction technology. It is a combination of the traditional cataract surgery method and the modern refractive surgery technique.
The purpose of a normal cataract surgery is to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with an intraocular lens that would restore the patient’s ability to see. In order words, it is a purely medical approach that restores the patient’s vision back as it was prior to that cataract development. For that, even after the patient has recovered from the surgery, he or she will still need the aid of eyeglasses or contact lens.
An intraocular lens is an artificial lens that either made of plastic, silicone or acrylic that performs that same function as of the eye’s natural lens. In other words, it replaces the natural lens entirely when it ceases to function. Normally, a person that needs to undergo an eye cataract surgery would have to have his natural lens replaced with an intraocular lens. Most of the IOLs that used in the surgery today are around a quarter of an inch in diameter and soft enough to be folded without causing any damages. The softness is very important so that the lens could be placed into the eye through a very small incision.
