About Cataract Surgery
Among seniors and “baby boomers,” cataract surgery is one of the safest, most effective, predictable, and most common operations performed in the U.S. with more than 2.5 million people having cataract surgery & lens implants each year. At Silver Spring Eye our cataract surgeons, Thomas Yau, M.D., Arusha Gupta, M.D., & Anna Park, M.D., provide advanced cataract surgery & lens implants using state-of-the-art technology and typically perform the cataract operation and lens implant surgery on an outpatient basis which offers comfortable and convenient same-day surgery.
The Cataract Surgery Procedure
Preparation for your cataract operation will begin with a few sets of drops being placed in your eye to dilate your pupil. Additionally, your eye will be treated with anesthetic drops to numb the surface of your eye so that you will feel little if any discomfort during your cataract surgery. In addition, you will be given medicines to help you relax if desired. The entire procedure usually takes less than 30 minutes and is not uncomfortable.
About Laser Cataract Surgery
Laser Cataract Surgery is performed by Drs. Yau, Gupta & Park to provide our patients with a safe, more precise and gentle cataract surgery procedure. Cataract surgery is a technically complex type of eye surgery requiring tremendous surgical skill to perform several steps that are currently performed manually. From a surgical perspective, our cataract surgeons believe that incorporation of the femtosecond laser into the cataract surgery and lens implant (IOL) procedure is beneficial for:
- Creating “perfect” incisions-without using a blade or knife-in terms of size and architecture, is important to have the incision seal properly without the use of stitches and to prevent infection.
- Creating a perfectly centered and sized “capsulotomy”, which is the “opening” prepared in the front of the crystalline lens through which the cloudy lens material is removed.
- Liquefying, softening or “chopping” the crystalline lens, allows the cloudy material to be removed to deliver a gentler eye surgery procedure.
- Creating the possibility of precisely sized and placed corneal incisions, such as might be performed with Limbal Relaxing Incisions (LRI), to correct pre-existing astigmatism.
Laser cataract surgery allows our cataract surgeons to deliver several skill-intensive steps of cataract surgery in a safe, more precise, and gentler manner. This increased safety and accuracy may lead to even further improvements in the clinical results.
About YAG Laser Capsulotomy
In up to approximately 30% of patients having cataract surgery, a specific complication called Posterior Capsular Opacification (PCO) may develop that can cause blurry vision, glare, haloes and even double vision. YAG Laser Capsulotomy is a type of laser eye surgery that’s used to treat this specific complication which occurs when the lens capsule-which is left in place to support the placement of the permanent clear lens implant-becomes clouded. The complication may occur a few weeks after cataract surgery, but also could take years before it appears. The YAG Laser Capsulotomy procedure is quick, painless and involves not surgical restrictions afterward.