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Cataract Surgery

Better vision for a better lifestyle

When your doctor tells you that you have a cataract and it should be removed, it may be frightening to consider. But once you understand what a cataract is, how it will be removed, and the life-changing benefits cataract surgery can bring, you'll likely wish you'd had the procedure sooner. A cataract can progress until eventually there is a complete loss of vision in your eye, and neither diet nor laser treatment will make a cataract go away. However, cataract surgery can help restore your vision, long before you experience loss of vision significant enough to interfere with your daily activities.

Getting Ready for Surgery

Cataract surgery is one of the safest, most effective types of surgery. It's also one of the most successful. After you and your eye doctor have decided that you will have cataract surgery, your doctor will measure your eye to determine the proper power of the IOL that will be placed in your eye during surgery.

Your doctor will then work with you to decide which IOL is best for your visual needs. There are two basic types of IOLs, each designed for a specific corrective function. Monofocal lenses provide corrective power in only one segment of your visual range (typically distance vision), while multifocal lenses are designed to correct a range of vision – near through distance.

The Procedure

Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure that will only take a few hours. When you arrive, your eyes may be treated with eye drops and anesthetic to minimize any discomfort during the operation.

During this routine operation, a small incision is made in the eye. Your surgeon will use a tiny instrument (about the size of a pen tip) to remove your clouded lens. This can be done with either an AquaLase® device, which uses gentle pulses of fluid to wash away your cloudy lens, or an ultrasonic instrument that breaks up and gently removes your cloudy lens (called phacoemulsification.) Once this is accomplished, your surgeon will insert an artificial intraocular lens (IOL) into your eye.

After Cataract Surgery

After the procedure, you'll be given a short time to rest. Then, the very same day, you can go home. Within the next 24 hours, your doctor will probably want to see you for an evaluation. Drops will be prescribed to guard against infection and to help your eyes heal. For a few days, you may need to wear a clear shield, especially at night, to prevent you from rubbing your eye.

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Brief history of IOLs

The evolution of cataract surgery took a giant step forward in 1949, when an English eye doctor named Harold Ridley developed and implanted the first intraocular lens. This lens was designed to imitate the natural human lens and was made of a hard plastic called Plexiglas, or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).

While there are several different types of intraocular lenses, all IOLs share a common basic construction-they typically consist of a round lens (called the optic) and two arms (called haptics), which keep the lens in place and centered in the eye. Since 1949, different materials have been used to make IOLs.

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TECNIS® Multifocal IOL

TECNIS® Multifocal Lens Technology

The TECNIS® Multifocal Intraocular lens is the first intraocular lens based on the wavefront data that makes modern LASIK procedures more accurate than ever before. The TECNIS® Multifocal intraocular lens is designed to give good vision for distance, intermediate, and up-close. TECNIS® describes this as giving "improved functional vision." In clinical studies TECNIS® has also been shown to give you better vision for driving in low-light situations compared to monofocal lenses.

During cataract surgery the cloudy natural lens is removed and replaced with an artificial intraocular lens that is clear. In the past, the replacement lens was a monofocal lens, which gave good distance vision, but required reading glasses for working up close. Now, though, there are several advanced intraocular lenses that allow good vision at all distances for our Monmouth and Ocean County, New Jersey cataract patients.

Superior Results

The advanced TECNIS® Multifocal Lens is an implantable lens that significantly improves vision after cataract surgery and corrects presbyopia. In a recent clinical study, over 94% of study patients said they would choose the TECNIS® Multifocal Lens again. (Per TECNIS® Multifocal Foldable Acrylic Intraocular Lens package insert. Santa Ana, CA, Advanced Medical Optics)

It's a lens that offers patients with age-related vision loss an excellent chance to regain youthful vision and become free of glasses.

AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL

Until recently, life without reading glasses or bifocals was not an option for most cataract patients. You now have an option. The AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL Intraocular lens (IOL) is a unique technological innovation that can provide you with quality vision throughout the entire visual spectrum – near through distance – with increased independence from reading glasses or bifocals!

How does the AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL work?

The AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL was designed to provide quality near to distance vision by combining the strengths of apodized diffractive and refractive technologies. Similar technology has been used for years in microscopes and telescopes to improve image quality, and has now been patented for use in intraocular lenses by Alcon®.

Apodized Diffractive

Apodization is the gradual tapering of the diffractive steps from the center to the outside edge of a lens to create a smooth transition of light between the distance, intermediate and near focal points. Diffraction involves the bending or spreading of light to multiple focal points as it passes through the lens. On the AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL, the center of the lens surface consists of an apodized diffractive optic. This means that the series of tiny steps in that center area work together to focus light for near through distance vision.

Refractive

Refraction involves the redirection of light passing through the lens, to focus on the retina. The refractive region of the AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL bends light as it passes through the lens to a focal point on the retina. This outer ring of the AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL surrounds the apodized diffractive region and is dedicated to focusing light for distance vision.

The AcrySof® ReSTOR® clinical studies indicated that nearly 94 percent of the study subjects were so satisfied with their new quality vision that they would have the AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL implanted again.

ReZOOM®

ReZOOM® is a multifocal intraocular lens (IOL). It’s used to replace your natural lens to correct presbyopia (the hardening of the natural lens that comes with age) or cataracts.

The ReZOOM® lens is designed to allow patients to see well at near, middle and far distances alike, by bending the light differently over different parts of the lens optics.

The ReZOOM® lens has uniquely proportioned visual zones, each zone designed for different light and focal distances. Unlike other earlier multifocal lens designs, the ReZOOM® lens has proportioned the size of its zones to provide for a good vision in a range of light conditions. For instance, some zones have been designed to offer clearer distance vision during night driving.

Crystalens® HD Accommodating Lens

At Schwartz Laser Eye Center, we are pleased to offer the Crystalens® HD accommodating IOL as a lens replacement option after cataract surgery. Crystalens® was the first accommodating intraocular lens to be approved by the FDA and is the only IOL to use the natural focusing ability of the eye. In addition to restoring the vision of cataract sufferers, Crystalens® IOLs can be used in the treatment of presbyopia (age-related loss of near and intermediate vision), and to reduce or eliminate most patients’ dependence on contact lenses or glasses.

Crystalens® IOLs are different from other IOLs because they work with the eye’s muscles to change focus, similar to how the eye’s natural lens adjusts between different focal points. The muscles move and flex the Crystalens® IOL, allowing for clear vision at near, intermediate, and far distances. Crystalens® HD is the fourth generation of this accommodating lens, and has been redesigned to enhance the depth of focus to improve near vision without compromising intermediate or distance vision.

In addition, patients don’t need to adjust to Crystalens® because it produces only one image, unlike multifocal lenses that produce several images that the brain has to interpret and piece together. There is also a lower risk of glare, halos, and night vision problems associated with Crystalens® IOLs than with other IOLs.

The surgical placement of Crystalens® HD IOLs is the same as with other IOLs. Most patients who are candidates for other types of IOLs are typically good candidates for Crystalens®.

If you would like to learn more about cataract surgery and lens replacement with Crystalens® HD or another IOL, contact Schwartz Laser Eye Center today.

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