What are Cataracts? Learn More During Cataract Awareness Month!
Cataract symptoms
Unless the person has suffered serious injury to the eye and gets a traumatic cataract in one eye, most of the time it will happen to both eyes. The first symptoms tend to be blurred vision, and sensitivity to light exposure. Sometimes the persons vision will have a yellowish hue to it and halos will appear around lights. The quality of vision can also drop dramatically at night time or dark environments. Being able to see shapes and judging distances will be impaired at night time. There is common misconception that a cataract can cause pain and itchiness. However, this is not true. On the other hand, there is a possibility for the cataract to embed itself in the lens, which can cause inflammation. This in turn can cause headaches, but no direct pain to the eye. If matters have reached this stage then it is important to make a visit to the doctor as soon as possible.
Cataract treatments
There are three options available to treat a cataract, and the good news is that each procedure is fairly routine and comes with relatively low risk. The three surgical procedures are intracapsular surgery, phacoemulsification and extracapsular surgery.
Intracapsular surgery
Intracapsular surgery is done only in most extreme cases. It is done on patients who have experienced extreme eye trauma. In this surgical procedure, a large incision will be done to remove both the lens as well as the capsular bag. The capsular bag is what holds the lens in place. Afterwards, a new implant will be placed on top of the iris, as opposed to in the area where the affected lens was located.
Phacoemulsification surgery
For this procedure, the affected lens is dissolved using ultrasound technology and taken out. However, the capsular bag is left in place and a new, artificial lens will be attached to it.
Extracapsular surgery
This procedure is done to patients needing more advanced cataract treatment. It is similar to Phacoemulsification surgery, except that the natural lens is not dissolved. Next, the artificial lens will be placed on the capsular bag.
Home care counselors at Partners in Healthcare are available to talk with you about yourin-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care in Orlando.