Lasik Surgery - Cataracts

San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose, California

WIn a healthy eye, light passes through the cornea to the lens. Both structures focus it on the retina to give clear images. As you get older, the protein fibers in the lens clump together, causing clouding in the lens. Over time, the clouding expands and covers more and more of the lens, causing problems with distance vision and night vision. If they are not treated they will cause blindness.

Symptoms

Symptoms vary as the cataracts progress and may include:

• Blurred or dim vision
• Night vision issues
• Sensitivity to bright light
• Halos
• The need for brighter light when reading
• Frequent changes in your prescription
• Fading or yellowing of colors
• Double vision in a single eye

Cataracts are opaque and disperse or block some of the incoming light, giving you blurry vision.

Three Types of Cataract

• Nuclear -- occurs in the center of the lens, gradually turning it yellow and impairing night vision.
• Cortical -- starts off as white streaks on the outer edge of the cortex (middle lens layer). They move towards the lens center of the lens, causing glare.
• Subcapsular -- forms near the back of the lens and prevents light from reaching the retina. It affects reading and bright light vision, and causes glare and halos at night.

Risk Factors

Age is the most common risk factor. Approximately 50% of Americans have at least minimal lens clouding by the time they turn 65 and by age 75, 70% have full blown cataracts.

Other risk factors are:

• Diabetes
• Genetics
• Previous eye injury
• Previous eye surgery
• Excessive exposure to sunlight
• Smoking

Treatment

There is no way to remove cataracts from the lens. So the surgery removes the clouded lens and replaces it with an intraocular lens (IOL). Each eye is treated at a separate time. Recovery is short and you will probably be able to resume full activity the same day. It is a very safe and reliable procedure with a 95% success rate.

For more information, see Questions about Cataracts.

At Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley, our staff is very experienced in treating cataracts. If you live in the San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, Berkeley or San Jose, California areas, please contact us to learn more about cataract surgery.

1.800.725.0740