The lens is a transparent component of the eye that aids in focusing light or images on the retina. Light enters the eye through the transparent lens and travels to the retina. Light is converted into nerve impulses and delivered to the brain once it reaches the retina.

• Increasing age
• Diabetes
• Excessive exposure to sunlight
• Smoking
• Obesity
• High blood pressure
• Previous eye injury or inflammation
• Previous eye surgery
• Prolonged use of corticosteroid medications
• Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol

• Cloudy, blurry, foggy, or filmy vision
• Myopia (nearsightedness) (in older people)
• Changes in the way you see color
• Night-time driving difficulties (glare from oncoming headlights, for example)
• During the day, there are glare issues.
• In the damaged eye, there is double vision.
• The trouble with eyeglasses or contact lenses not working well

Cataracts develop when protein deposits in the lens of your eye, causing it to become clouded. Cataracts come in many different forms.

• Nuclear/ Nuclear Sclerotic Cataract
• Cortical Cataract
• Posterior Subcapsular Cataract
• Congenital Cataract

The most common type of cataract develops in the nucleus of the lens, located in the centre of the lens. Initially, a nuclear cataract may produce increased nearsightedness or perhaps a temporary improvement in your reading vision. However, as time passes, the lens becomes more thickly yellow, severely obscuring your eyesight.

The lens may even become brown as the cataract advances. Advanced yellowing or browning of the lens might make it difficult to tell between different shades of colour.

Cataracts damage the lens's edges. Cortical cataracts begin as white, wedge-shaped opacities or streaks on the lens cortex's outer border. The streaks gradually spread to the centre of the lens, interfering with light passing through the centre of the lens.

Cataracts damage the lens's back surface. stones untreated. They may include the following:

A posterior subcapsular cataract begins as a tiny, opaque region towards the rear of the lens, directly in the path of light. A posterior subcapsular cataract frequently impairs reading vision, lowers vision in strong light, and generates glare or halos around lights at night. These forms of cataracts tend to develop more quickly than others.

Some people are born with cataracts, while others develop them as children. These cataracts might be hereditary or caused by an intrauterine illness or trauma.

Certain disorders, such as myotonic dystrophy, galactosemia, neurofibromatosis type 2 or rubella, may also cause cataracts. Congenital cataracts do not often damage vision, but when they do, they are typically removed as soon as they are discovered.

Your doctor would want to know about all of your symptoms to determine if you have cataracts. They will examine your eyes carefully and may do various tests, such as:

• Visual acuity test
• Slit-lamp exam
• Retinal exam.

Your doctor would want to know about all of your symptoms to determine if you have cataracts. They will examine your eyes carefully and may do various tests, such as:

Visual acuity test
This is a term for "eye chart exam." To determine how acute your eyesight is, your doctor will have you read letters from a distance. You'll begin by trying it with one eye, then the other. They may next do a glare test, in which they beam a bright light into your eye and ask you to read the letters.

Slit-lamp exam test
This procedure uses a special microscope with a strong light that allows your doctor to examine various regions of your eye. They will examine your cornea, which is the transparent outer layer of your eye. They'll also examine your iris, the coloured part of your eye, as well as the lens that sits behind it. The lens bends light as it enters your eye, allowing you to see clearly.

Retinal exam test
Your doctor will place drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils, which are the black areas in the centre of your eyes that govern how much light enters. This allows them to get a better look at the retina, which is the tissue at the back of your eyes, as well as a clearer picture of the cataract.

Cataract surgery is the only method to treat them, although you may not need it right immediately. If you discover the problem early enough, you may be able to get away with just a fresh prescription for your glasses.

Cataract surgery is an outpatient treatment that employs the most sophisticated techniques available. There are no sutures, patches, or injections involved with the operation, which is completely painless.

Treatment Procedure

Ultrasound is utilised during cataract removal surgery to break up the clouded eye lens and remove the lens components. A new intraocular lens is inserted through an extremely small, self-sealing incision that heals fast.

There is no bleeding since no blood vessels are severed. There will be no sutures to remove, and just local or topical anaesthetic will be utilised. Patients recover rapidly and can resume normal activities the next day.

An intraocular lens is an artificial lens that is used to replace the natural lens after cataract surgery. An intraocular lens implant, or IOL, is a clear plastic device roughly the size of a dime.

Monofocal IOL:
This is the most common Unlike your natural lens, which may stretch or flex to help you focus your eyes, this implant remains focused at a single set distance. If yours focuses at a distance, you may be able to see things from a distance but may require glasses to read or see up close.

Multifocal implant:
This lens, like glasses with bifocal or progressive lenses, includes sections that allow you to view things at varying distances. It may take several months for your brain to adjust so that your eyesight appears normal. It can produce more halos or glare around lights than a mono-focal lens.

Accommodating IOL:
This adaptable alternative functions more like your natural lens and can focus at multiple distances. It reduces the need for reading glasses.

Toric IOL:
You'll get this if you have astigmatism or a football-shaped cornea rather than a round one. This can cause hazy vision all throughout, not just close up or far away. Because this lens reduces astigmatism, you won't need glasses to fix it following surgery.

There is no one ideal choice in medicine, as there is in life. Your doctor will go through the possible benefits of each of these lenses with you and help you choose the one that is most suited to your lifestyle, visual demands, and expectations from cataract surgery.

Intraocular Lens can be chosen according to:

• Lifestyle and priorities
• Pre-existing diseases
• Costs

There are different cataract surgeries, but they all have one thing in common: your surgeon removes the hazy lens and replaces it with an artificial one.

You might be apprehensive about having surgery on such a delicate area as your eye. However, it is a pretty frequent operation. To numb your eye, you will be given a medication known as a local anaesthetic. You'll be awake but medicated, with no sensations.

It normally takes 15 to 20 minutes, and you don't have to stay in the hospital overnight. If you have cataracts in both eyes, your doctor will wait until the first recovers before operating on the second. More than 95% of those who have this procedure done report they can see better afterwards.

Small-incision surgery:
• Small cut
• They insert a tiny device into your eye that emits ultrasonic waves that break up the cloudiness in your lens. Then they remove the components and insert the artificial lens.

Large-incision surgery:
• This is less common, although doctors may recommend treatment for bigger cataracts that cause greater visual problems than normal.
• The clouded lens is removed in one piece and replaced with an artificial one.
• You'll likely need a bit more time to recuperate.

Femtosecond laser surgery:
• Uses a laser to break up the lens.
• Usually suggested if you also have astigmatism.

The cost of cataract surgery will vary depending on your insurance coverage, deductibles or co-pays, and the lens choice you select. Most insurance policies cover cataract surgery as well as a typical replacement lens. Some of the lens selections may incur additional out-of-pocket costs.

• Minimum Cost Rs. 22000 to Rs. 30000
• Average Cost Rs. 37000 to Rs. 45000
• Maximum Cost Rs. 69000 to Rs. 80000

Cataract surgery is performed as an outpatient procedure.

• Depending on the time of your procedure, you may be requested to forgo breakfast and refrain from consuming liquids.
• Avoid using eye makeup, lotion, cologne, perfume, hairspray, or any other hair products on the day of the procedure.
• Bring a driver who will be with you the entire time.
• On the day of your procedure, please plan on spending several hours at the surgical centre.
• You will be given eye drops to dilate your pupils and maybe a sedative to help you relax when you arrive at the facility.
• The surgery will be painless thanks to a local or topical anaesthetic.
• Following your surgery, you will spend some time in recovery, have your eyesight examined, and then be permitted to go home.

• Any procedure has the potential for problems. Although it is uncommon following an intraocular lens implant, you may have bleeding or an eye infection.
• Swelling and redness are more prevalent.

More serious risks include:
• A detached retina develops when the layer of nerve cells in the rear of your eye separates. This is a medical situation that requires immediate attention.
• Loss of vision
• A dislocation occurs when the implant slides out of place.

Most patients can continue normal activities the day after cataract surgery, except swimming. It will take 8 to 12 weeks to completely recover. During the specific period:

• Wear sunglasses as often as possible to protect your eyes, and sleep with your eye shield on at night.
• Even if your eye is irritated or leaks a little fluid, don't massage or squeeze it.
• Take the eye drops that your doctor has prescribed. You'll use them for many weeks to aid in the healing of your eye.
• Most forms of activity and heavy lifting should be avoided. When you can do those activities again, the doctor will inform you.

A new cataract cannot form because cataract surgery removes the natural lens and replaces it with a new one. Your eyesight, however, may get foggy again. If you continue to have foggy vision following cataract surgery, speak with your ophthalmologist about your cataract treatment options.