A Visual Guide to Cataracts

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What Are Cataracts?

A cataract is a progressive, painless clouding of the natural, internal lens of the eye. Cataracts block light, making it difficult to see clearly. Over an extended period of time, cataracts can cause blindness. They're often related to growing older, but sometimes they can develop in younger people

How Cataracts Affect Your Vision

In a normal eye, light enters and passes through the lens. The lens focuses that light into a sharp image on the retina, which relays messages through the optic nerve to the brain. If the lens is cloudy from a cataract, the image you see will be blurry. Other eye conditions, such as myopia, cause blurry vision, too, but cataracts produce some distinctive signs and symptoms.

Cataract Symptom: Blurry Vision

Blurry vision at any distance is the most common symptom of cataracts. Your view may look foggy, filmy, or cloudy. Over time, as the cataracts get worse, less light reaches the retina. People with cataracts may have an especially hard time seeing and driving at night.

Cataract Symptom: Glare

Another early symptom of cataracts is glare, or sensitivity to light. You may have trouble seeing in bright sunlight. Indoor lights that once didnt bother you now may seem too bright or have halos. Driving at night may become a problem because of the glare caused by street lights and oncoming headlights.

Cataract Symptom: Double Vision

Sometimes, cataracts can cause double vision (also known as diplopia) when you look with one eye. This is different from the double vision that comes from the eyes not lining up properly. With cataracts, images appear double even with one eye open.

Cataract Symptom: Color Changes

Cataracts can affect your color vision, making some hues look faded. Your vision may gradually take on a brownish or yellowish tinge. At first, you may not notice this discoloration. But over time, it may make it harder to distinguish blues and purples.

Cataract Symptom: Second Sight

Sometimes, a cataract may temporarily improve a persons ability to see close-up, because the cataract acts as a stronger lens. This phenomenon is called second sight, because people who may have once needed reading glasses find that they dont need them anymore. As the cataract worsens however, this goes away and vision worsens again.

Cataract Symptom: New Prescription

Frequent changes to your eyeglass or contact lens prescription can be a sign of cataracts. This is because cataracts are usually progressive, meaning they get worse over time.

Who Gets Cataracts?

The majority of cataracts are related to aging. More than half of Americans over 65 have cataracts. Babies are sometimes born with cataracts, also called congenital cataracts, or children may develop them as a result of injury or illness.

What Causes Cataracts?

The exact cause of cataracts is unknown. While the risk grows as you get older, these factors may also contribute:

• Diabetes
• Smoking
• Excess alcohol use
• Eye Injury
• Prolonged use of corticosteroids
• Prolonged exposure to sunlight or radiation

How Are Cataracts Diagnosed?

Most cataracts can be diagnosed with an eye exam. Your eye doctor will test your vision and examine your eyes with a slit lamp microscope to look for problems with the lens and other parts of the eye. The pupils are dilated to better examine the back of the eye, where the retina and optic nerve lie.

Surgery for Cataracts

If you have vision loss caused by cataracts that cant be corrected with glasses or contact lenses, you may need surgery to remove the cataracts. In cataract surgery, the cloudy lens is removed and replaced with an artificial lens. The surgery, which is done on an outpatient basis, is safe and extremely effective at improving vision. If cataracts are present in both eyes, surgery will be done on one eye at a time.

Types of Cataract Surgery

There are two types of cataract surgery. In the more common type, called phacoemulsification (phaco), the doctor makes a tiny incision in the eye and breaks up the lens using ultrasound waves. The lens is removed, and an intraocular lens (IOL) is put in its place. In most modern cataract surgeries the IOL eliminates the need for thick glasses or a contact lens after surgery.

Cataract Surgery Innovations

Recent developments in cataract surgery can correct both near and distance vision. They minimize or eliminate the need for reading glasses after surgery. Conventional "monofocal" lenses only correct for distance vision, meaning reading glasses are still needed after surgery. "Toric" implants are available to correct astigmatism. A lens for better color vision is in development (shown here next to a dime).

What to Expect After Surgery

For a few days, your eye may be itchy and sensitive to light. You may be prescribed drops to aid healing and asked to wear an eye shield or glasses for protection. It'll take about eight weeks for your eye to heal completely, though your vision should begin to improve soon after surgery. You may still need glasses, at least occasionally, for distance or reading -- as well as a new prescription after healing is complete.

Cataract Surgery Risks

Complications from cataract surgery are rare. The most common risks are bleeding, infection, and changes in eye pressure, which are all treatable when caught early. Surgery slightly raises the risk of retinal detachment, which requires emergency treatment. Sometimes, lens tissue left after surgery and used to support the IOL can become cloudy, even years after surgery. This "after-cataract" is easily and permanently corrected with a laser.

Should You Have Cataract Surgery?

Whether or not to have cataract surgery is up to you and your doctor. Rarely cataracts need to be removed right away, but this isnt usually the case. Cataracts affect vision slowly over time, so many people wait to have surgery until glasses or contacts no longer improve their vision enough. If you dont feel that your cataracts are causing problems in your day-to-day life, you may choose to wait.

Tips to Prevent Cataracts

Things you can do that may lower your risk of developing cataracts:

• Don't smoke.
• Always wear a hat or sunglasses in the sun.
• Keep diabetes well controlled.
• Limit alcohol consumption.

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What to Expect From Cataract Surgery

A cataract is a clouding of the eye lens that can make it hard for you to see. The condition is most common in older people, but anyone can have one.

If your vision starts to cloud up, you can have your cataract removed and a plastic implant put in its place. That may sound scary, but it can improve your eyesight and make your life easier in lots of ways.
Who Should Have Surgery?

If you have a cataract, that doesn’t always mean you need surgery. You may not even notice any change in your vision. Some people who have this condition see just fine if they wear prescription glasses, use a magnifying lens, or rely on brighter lighting.
But as cataracts grow, they can cause more symptoms and cause problems in everyday life.
You could have dim, blurred, yellow, or double vision. This can make it hard to read, work on a computer, and anything else that calls for clear eyesight.
You may have poor night vision and find it harder to drive when it’s dark. People with advanced cataracts can even fail the vision part of a driver’s test.
They can make you more sensitive to glare from the sun. You might see a halo around bright lights. This can keep you from being outdoors as much as you’d like. It also makes it harder to play some sports, such as skiing or golf.
If you have any of these symptoms, surgery could help.
Sometimes it’s necessary to get a cataract removed even if it doesn’t bother you. Your doctor may suggest surgery if yours keeps you from having a complete eye exam or makes it hard to treat another eye condition you have.
How Do I Prepare For It?

A week or two before the date of your procedure, your doctor will do some tests to measure the size and shape of your eye. This way he can choose the best lens implant for you.
He’ll probably tell you not to eat or drink anything for 12 hours before the surgery.

What Happens?

The surgery usually takes under an hour. Most people feel very little pain.
First, your doctor will numb your eye with anesthetic, meaning you will be awake for the procedure. He may also give you medicine to help you relax.
He’ll make a tiny cut in the front of your eye. Through this, he’ll insert a small tool to break up the cataract and gently suction it out. Then, he’ll insert the new lens implant, which is made of plastic, silicone or acrylic, and close the incision. Your doctor may sew in stitches.
You won’t need to stay overnight at the hospital. Cataract surgery is done as an outpatient procedure. But you will need someone to drive you home.
If you have cataracts in both eyes, you’ll probably be scheduled for two separate surgeries, typically a few weeks apart. This gives the first eye a chance to heal.
What Are the Side Effects?

Cataract surgery is very safe. Side effects are rare. Still, problems you could have include:

• Eye infection or swelling
• Bleeding
• Retina detachment
• Feeling of pressure inside your eye
• Loosening of new implant
• Fluid buildup in eye
• Drooping eyelid

After Surgery

Your eye may itch or feel sore for a few days after. It’s also common to have some fluid discharge. You might also find it hard to see well in bright light.
Your doctor will give you eyedrops to prevent infection. You’ll need to take it easy for a few days. Driving will be off-limits, and you shouldn’t bend over, pick up heavy things, or put any pressure on your eye.
For the first week, your doctor will likely recommend sleeping in an eye shield. This will protect the site of your surgery so your eye can heal. If you’re in pain or feel your eye isn’t healing like it should, tell your doctor right away.
After 8 weeks, your eye should be fully healed. About 90% of people see better after cataract surgery. But don’t expect your vision to be perfect -- you may still need to wear glasses or contacts.



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[h=2] What is Cataract (Motiya)
Dr. Waseem Khan, Riyadh
[/h] If your eye doctor tells you that you have “Cataract” (motiya) in your eyes, immediately you’ll get scared. But I have a good news for you! Actually cataract is not a disease, but it is an opacification of the lens of our eye that affects vision. For example, like a camera lens, when camera lens becomes dirty or blurred by any reason then photo cannot come clear. Similarly Allah gave us a best transparent lens in our eyes, but when this lens becomes blurred then we cannot see clearly.

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When we see anything, the image of that thing goes inside our eyes through this transparent lens and reaches the “retina” (light sensitive part of eye located at the back of our eye). Then retina changes this image into nerve signals and sends them to the brain. Then brain recognizes the image and that’s how we get to view things all around us. Large majority of cataracts occur in older peoples. Cataract can occur in one or both eyes simultaneously. It cannot spread from one eye to the other.



When a cataract is small, the cloudiness affects only a small part of the lens. A cataract tends to "grow" slowly and vision gets worse gradually. I

n the mean time, the cloudy area in the lens may get larger, and the cataract may increase in size. Your vision may get dull or blur. As age increases the lens becomes brownish. At first, the amount of tinting of lens may be small and may not cause a vision problem but as the time passes, increased tinting will cause more difficulty to read and perform other routine activities. This gradual change in amount of tinting does not affect the sharpness of the image transmitted to the retina.

If you have advanced lens discoloration, you may not be able to identify blue and purple colors. You may be wearing what you believe to be a pair of black socks, but actually you are wearing purple socks.

The risk of cataract increases, as you get older. Other risk factors for cataract include:
v Diabetes.
v Smoking.
v Alcohol and
v Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet sunlight.
The most common symptoms of a cataract are:
Cloudy or blurry vision, colors seem faded, headlights, lamps, or sunlight may appear too bright. When you look around light halos may appear .you will have poor vision at night, double vision or multiple images in one eye. Frequent changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses power. (These symptoms may clear, as the cataract gets larger.) These symptoms also can be a sign of other eye problems. If you have any of these symptoms, check with your eye specialist. Although most cataracts are related to aging, but also there are other types of cataract such as:
v Secondary cataract: It can take place, if you’ve eye surgery for other eye problems, such as “glaucoma” (“kala pani” in Urdu language).
v Steroid induced cataract: It is linked to long-term use of steroid medicines.
v Traumatic cataract: It can develop after an eye injury.
v Congenital cataract: Some babies are born with this type of cataract or it can also develop during childhood age, this kind of cataract in childhood, needs more care because it can cause failure of development of normal vision of child, and this failure of development of vision is rarely reversible.