Cataract surgery, also called lens replacement surgery, is the removal of the natural lens of the eye that has developed a cataract, an opaque or cloudy area. Pre-operative patient selection and good counselling is necessary to avoid unrealistic expectations and post-operative patient dissatisfaction, and possibly a requirement to replace the lens.
Some IOLs are able to absorb ultraviolet and high-energy blue light, thus mimicking the functions of the natural crystalline lens of the eye, which usually filters potentially harmful frequencies. A 2018 Cochrane review found there is unlikely to be a significant difference in distance vision between blue-filtering and plain lenses, and was unable to identify a difference in contrast sensitivity or colour discrimination. Couching was the original form of cataract surgery, and was used from antiquity. It is still occasionally found in traditional medicine in parts of Africa and Asia. According to a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Translational Medicine, much of the material in ophthalmology literature attributing cataract surgery to Sushruta is copied from earlier papers without verification from the original sources. According to ophthalmic historian Julius Hirschberg, whether the cataract operation was actually invented by the Indians can so far neither be confirmed nor denied.
Couching was the main procedure for cataracts from antiquity until Sep. 18, 1750 when French surgeon Jacques Daviel, credited as the father of modern cataract extraction surgery, performed a planned extracapsular cataract extraction while in Cologne. Daviel began animal experiments with cataract extraction in the first week of July 1750, following two other Paris-based surgeons (Jean Baseilhac and Natale Pallucci) who also began work on cataract extraction that same week.
In 1753, Samuel Sharp performed the first-recorded surgical removal of the entire lens and lens capsule, equivalent to intracapsular cataract extraction. The lens was removed from the eye through a limbal incision. This made visual rehabilitation after cataract surgery a more efficient, effective, and comfortable process.
Accessibility
Access to cataract surgery is very variable by country and region. Even in developed countries availability may vary significantly between rural and more densely populated areas.
The global health situation of cataracts is improving but this progress has not reduced the need for cataract surgery, which is still inadequate in large parts of the world. Older people, women, and lower socioeconomic status are associated with higher untreated cataract numbers.
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Further reading
External links
<!-- * Cataract Surgery – slideshow by The New York Times
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- YouTube video of phacoemulification technique