A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night which may result in trouble driving, reading, or recognizing faces. Poor vision caused by cataracts may also result in an increased risk of falling and depression. Cataracts are the cause of half of blindness and 33% of visual impairment worldwide.
How cataract affects vision
Inside your eye, behind the iris and pupil is a lens. In a normal eye, this lens is clear. It helps focus light rays on to the retina, which sends messages to the brain. When cataract occurs, the lens becomes cloudy and prevents the light rays from passing on to the retina. The picture that the retina receives becomes dull and fuzzy. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Most people experience a gradual blurring of vision.
Causes of Cataract
Cataract is considered mainly due to aging but it may also occur due to trauma or radiation exposure, be present from birth, or occurrence following eye surgery for other problems. Risk factors include diabetes, smoking tobacco, prolonged exposure to sunlight, and alcohol. Either clumps of protein or yellow-brown pigment may be deposited in the lens reducing the transmission of light to the retina at the back of the eye.
Prevention & Treatment
Wear sunglass can effectively reduce lens exposure to ultraviolet ray in the sunshine. Quitting smoke is also recommendable. Early on the symptoms may be improved with glasses. If this does not help, surgery to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with an artificial lens is the only effective treatment.
Chengdu Aier East Eye Hospital is in the line with the world technology in treating cataract. We keep pace with every step of technology development and bring our patients the most advanced and safe-proven methods of treating and outcomes to satisfaction. In addition to conventional phacoemulsification technology, we proudly introduce the Femtosecond Laser which brings micron level accuracy, needle-free, blade-free surgery to the public and is the greatest breakthrough in cataract surgery in the last 25 years. It has the potential to carry out lens extraction or cataract surgery through a pin-prick incision and is far safer and superior to current cataract surgical techniques.
