Cataract surgery

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye. This can be caused by a number of factors, such as injuries, systemic diseases (e.g. diabetes) or other eye conditions. Cataracts can also be congenital. However, the most common cause of cataracts is age-related metabolic disorders, the nature of which is still not fully understood. As a result, there is still no known medication that has been proven to prevent or cure cataracts. So far, the only effective treatment for cataracts is surgery. Cataracts are the most common eye disease and therefore the most common cause for eye surgery.

Lens clouding is a gradual process. In the early stages, it may not even have much impact on eyesight. Today, whether and when to operate is largely a question of the patient’s quality of life. This means that the patient has to assess how much the cataract is interfering with their daily life. The doctor explains the prospects and risks of the operation to the patient, and it is up to the patient to decide whether they want the surgery. Modern cataract surgery involves removing the lens and replacing it with an artificial lens that does not age. Usually, the artificial lens is placed in the patient’s own ‘lens capsule’. After cataract surgery, 20% of cases will sooner or later develop lens capsule clouding, leading to reduced vision acuity. This condition can be treated with a special laser.

Cataract surgery is performed under a microscope, usually under local anaesthesia. Usually, a special ultrasound machine is used to remove the patient’s own lens. We perform cataract surgery with microsurgery and ultrasound methods in combination with crude intraocular lens implantation or multifocal lens implantation.

For further details, please refer to the patient information materials:

Postoperative cataract care