CATARACT

A cataract is a clouding of the natural lens in the eye. This structure (also called the crystalline lens or phakos) continues to grow throughout life and change. These changes are what determines the need for updates in glasses. The lens increases in overall size throughout life and progressively loses transparency from around age 30.

Whilst early changes in transparency loss are not likely to affect vision eventually a patient will notice that vision becomes blurry and that glasses cannot rectify the visual quality. On average this occurs around the age of 65-70. Additional symptoms are glare intolerance and rapidly changing glasses prescription.

Some people will also experience the phenomena of “second sight” where the eye becomes short sighted making near vision possible again, although this is a short lived process inevitably leading to very poor distance and near vision. Cataract surgery (perhaps better termed lens replacement surgery) replaces the cloudy lens with a replacement focusing lens known as an intra ocular lens (IOL) Every patient will eventually develop cataract and in some cases it can occur at relatively young age and even in babies.