Today's Health Topic

Considering cataract surgery? What you should know

Cataract surgery — which involves removing the eye's clouded lens and replacing it with a clear synthetic version — once required several days in the hospital and a long recovery period. Today it is performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis, and people are back to their normal lives within days. The success rate is high, and the rate of vision-threatening complications is relatively low. “For people with cataracts, the decision whether to have surgery may be easy to make. However, two additional decisions might be more difficult,“ says Dr. Laura Fine, an ophthalmologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. “When to have surgery and what type of lens implant to get.”

Uncover what else you may need to consider before undergoing cataract surgery »

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As the eyes age, problems with vision become more common. Learn how to recognize the risk factors and symptoms of specific eye diseases — cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy — and what steps you can take to prevent or treat them before your vision deteriorates.