What is cataract?

• Is your eyesight blurry?
• Is it clouded?
• Do you suffer when you read?
• Do you have problems watching TV or using your phone?
• Do you have difficulties driving?

These may be symptoms of eye cataract, although they may seem harmless, but ignoring them long enough may cause partial or total blindness! Cataract is a very common eyesight problem especially in the elderly, it is predicted to affect 30 million individuals by the year 2021.

Cataract is clouding of our natural eye lens. It is a gradual build-up of hazy proteins in your eyes’ lenses that prevents light from passing to the retina properly. Vision becomes cloudy and blurry as if you are seeing through a dirty window, which worsens over time. After a while, if left untreated the cloudiness could be visible if you simply look into the mirror! You can see a cloudy grey color or film through your pupil. This means that neglecting going to an ophthalmologist is an eminent disaster!

But there is a silver lining in this cloud (aka cataract), as it could be totally treated by surgery. Simply by replacing the clouded lens with a new artificial one and regaining your eyesight completely.

Traditionally, in cataract surgery, the eye surgeon uses a blade to create a small incision in one side of the cornea to insert a specific probe designed to extract or remove the clouded lens and then insert the new IOL (intra-ocular lens) through the same incision.

What is femto cataract?

But in femtosecond laser assisted cataract (aka femto cataract) most of these steps are made with the help of femtosecond laser. This procedure is confirmed to improve the precision, accuracy, efficiency, outcome, and safety of cataract surgery.

Femto cataract is a bladeless, computer assisted procedure that helps automate, secure the most challenging steps in cataract surgery.

About femto-cataract :

Femto: Femtosecond is the unit of time equivalent to one quadrillionth of a second! It is the speed of laser energy pulses bursting off femtosecond laser devices. This speed allows laser beams to break tissues at their molecular level with no damage to their surrounding tissues.

One of the main advantages of femtosecond laser in cataract surgery is the fact that it needs no blades to make the corneal incision. This means less cutting time, less bleeding, better and faster healing and less complications.

The other advantage of femto cataract surgeries is its ability to soften the cataract as it breaks up the inside of the lens capsule into tiny pieces making it easier to extract with minimal damage to the capsule. Making this step more precise and safer.

Similarly, to traditional cataract surgery, once the clouded lens is emulsified and removed, another artificial lens is inserted to replace it. This allows the patient to restore his eyesight completely.

5 fictions about femto cataract

Femto cataract surgery is dangerous

This is a common myth, but in fact femto-laser assisted cataract surgery is one of the safest procedures in eye surgeries. WHO stated that more than 20 million femto cataract surgeries have been performed by eye surgeons all over the world. More than 95% of these surgeries were successful. It is safe enough, that it is performed in out-patient facilities and ophthalmological centers. With no hospital stay and the patient can leave on the same day! It is painless and the patient restores his eyesight almost immediately after the surgery.

Cataract could be treated with eyedrops, drugs and/or herbs

This is not only a fiction; it is a huge misconception! No matter what misguided ads or shade pharmaceutical companies say, cataract can never treat by drugs or herbal medicine! In fact, it only deteriorates the condition even more! Cataracts or clouded lenses are not dissolvable my medicine, they can only be destroyed by ultrasonic waves and extracted by surgery! Cataract cannot be reversed or dissolved by eye drops or herbs.

The only use for eyedrops in cataract treatment comes after the success of the femto cataract surgery, as the doctor prescribes them to prevent dryness and infection, alleviate inflammation and pain after surgery.

Femto Lasik surgery can treat cataract

Not all eye surgeries fix cataract! Although devices’ technology may look similar between Lasik surgery and cataract surgery. But there is a huge difference between the use of each device and the technique of the surgery.

Femto Lasik depends on reshaping the cornea without touching the lens. While femto cataract depends on dissolving the clouded lens and extracting it without touching the cornea (only a small bladeless incision on the side of it).

Cataract happens because you watch too much TV

This is a fiction, although the exact causes of cataract are not well-known but watching too much TV or mobile phone doesn’t cloud your lenses! The difficulty accompanying overusing your eye is related to the stress exerted by your eyes to focus not cataract.

Cataract returns after femto cataract surgery

This a fiction, simply because the new IOL inserted as a replacement of the old clouded lens is artificial. So, it is not affected by the same factors that caused the cataract in the first place. And if you suffer of any opaqueness in your vision after surgery, this could be attributed to capsule opacification (the lens capsule is cloudy and could be corrected easily).

Magrabi’s advice

Cataract is a very common eye problem, especially in old age. It is cloudiness of the protein of the lens inside the eye, if neglected it could cause partial blindness! But if you check with your eye doctor soon enough or regularly as Magrabi always advices, he/she can diagnose it soon enough to treat it with minimal complications. The best treatment is femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery! But there are some misconceptions about this surgery, know more through this article or book an appointment now with one of Magrabi’s professional ophthalmologists.