Cataract is a condition in which the natural lens in your eye gradually turns cloudy. For most, the progression is gradual. At the earliest stages of cataract, vision is not affected to a significant degree. With the passage of time, patients may notice reduction in some aspects of their vision including night vision, contrast and colour vision. At the later stages, patients suffer from blurring of vision which cannot be corrected with spectacles.
Where patients are often confused is deciding when is the optimum time to have cataract surgery. Many of the older folks used to remember their eye doctors telling them to wait till the cataract would fully “ripen” like a fruit before having surgery.
That would have been at least 20 or more years ago. In those days, the surgery required a far larger wound and was considered to have greater risks of infection or bleeding and the recovery could take as long as 3 months.
Fast forward to today, cataract surgery is now performed via keyhole methods with incisions smaller than 2mm. Recovery is now within a month, with many patients returning to work within a week after surgery. Rarely do we now wait for a cataract to fully “ripen” as these cataracts may pose a challenge to the keyhole methods of surgery resulting in higher rates of complications.
In addition, newer lens implants for cataract surgery now have the potential to help patients gain spectacle independence for both far and near distances thereby significantly reducing the need for glasses for far and for reading.
The consideration of when to have cataract surgery can be basically boiled down to one question: Has your vision reached a stage whereby your quality of life has become affected? ( e.g. work, sports and hobbies).
If the answer is no, then it would be appropriate to observe the situation. If however your vision prevents you from maintaining your daily routine then it may be time to have a deeper discussion with your ophthalmologist on the best timing for your cataract surgery, including the various lens implants available to help you be spectacle independent.
Understand that different individuals will have different visual demands and as a result, the advice on the timing of cataract surgery will also be dependent on the patient’s current lifestyle and occupational needs.
