Cataract is the condition, in which the crystalline lens loses its transparency.
The crystalline lens is the lens behind the pupil, which converges the light and allows the eye to focus. In case of hazy crystalline lens, vision becomes blurry and may affect the color vision firstly.
A common symptom of cataract is the difficulty of driving at night and the disturbance of drivers' lights. If the central nucleus of the crystalline lens becomes blurry, the patient may develop diplopia.
Surgical treatment of cataract
The treatment of cataract is the surgical removal of the crystalline lens.
In most of the cases the surgical procedure includes the following stages:
At the beginning of the procedure the eye is filled up with a viscoelastic, which will protect the ocular tissues and especially the cornea. Then, the surgeon may remove the frontal part of the crystalline lens capsule, creating the procedure of capsulorhexis. Using ultrasound, the surgeon crushes the lens and removes the cataract by sunction technique, which is called phacoemulsification, leaving the posterior capsule intact. Then, an intraocular lens is placed in the eye, the power of which is calculated by a specialized examination, called biometry. The lens is stable in the eye due to its special legs, which are called haptics.
Secondary Cataract- Posterior Capsule Haze
The capsule is a thin, flexible bag which holds the intraocular lens that is placed in the eye after the cataract surgery. The anterior part of the lens capsule is removed, to facilitate the removal of cataracts. The new intraocular lens is placed into the remaining part of the lens capsule.
This posterior part of the lens capsule becomes hazy and blurred in 20-25% of the patients that undergo cataract surgery. The most common symptoms is blurred vision like in cataracts. That’s why this condition is called secondary cataract.
Secondary Cataract Symptoms
• Progressive vision reduction
• Blurred vision
• Visual blur becomes worse in the sun or at driving at night, because of the hazy lights.