Below is a narrated animation about cataract and surgical treatment. Click here to license this video on Alila Medical Media website.

What is Cataract?

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision.
The lens is a clear biconvex structure located behind the pupil and helps to focus light on the retina. The lens must be clear to let the light through for sharp vision.
Clouding of the lens reduces the amount of light that reaches the retina, causing blurred vision. The color of the lens also changes, adding a brownish tint to the image.

Fig. 1: Clouding of the lens in cataract. Click on image to see it on Alila Medical Media website where the image is also available for licensing (together with other related images and videos).

Causes

– Aging : Cataract is most commonly related to aging. With time, proteins of the lens denature and clump together forming patches on the lens. These patches grow larger over time.

– Secondary cataracts develop as a result of other eye diseases such as glaucoma, or other health conditions such as diabetes.

– Radiation: Radiation such as X-rays or ultraviolet light, especially UVB (in the sunlight), can increase the risks of developing cataracts.

– Genetic: genetic make-up plays a significant role.

– Congenital cataracts: (rare) babies are born with cataracts, or develop them in early childhood, often in both eyes. This usually happens as part of a particular syndrome, or as a result of certain type of infection during pregnancy.

How Cataract is Treated?

Surgery is the most effective treatment for cataract. Surgery involves removing the cloudy lens and replacing it with an artificial lens. Cataract surgery is relatively simple and highly successful.
There are two main types of surgeries for cataract removal:

Phacoemulsification, or phaco is the most commonly performed. In this procedure:
– A small incision is made on the side of the cornea.
– An ultrasound probe is used to emulsify the cloudy lens which is then removed by suction.
– A plastic foldable lens, called an intraocular lens or IOL, is inserted to replace the natural lens.

Fig. 2: Phacoemulsification. Click on image to see it on Alila Medical Media website where the image is also available for licensing (together with other related images and videos).

 

 

 

Extracapsular cataract extraction: this procedure is performed for harder cataracts that cannot be readily emulsified. In this procedure, a larger incision is made and the cloudy lens is removed in one piece. After placement of the artificial lens, sutures will be required to close the incision.