Considering cataract surgery? What you should know

The operation to replace a clouded lens is low-risk, fast, and effective, but requires some decision making.

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.”

The Aging Eye
Featured content:

• How the eye works

• The eye examination

• Cataract

• SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: Choices in cataract surgery

• Glaucoma

• ... and more!

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