Cataract Surgery

Overview :

There are two types of cataract surgery: intracapsular and extracapsular. Intracapsular surgery is the removal of both the lens and the thin capsule that surround the lens. This type of surgery was common before 1980, but has since been displaced by extracapsular surgery. Removal of the capsule requires a large incision and doesn't allow comfortable intraocular lens implantation. Thus, people who undergo intracapsular cataract surgery have long recovery periods and have to wear very thick glasses.

Extracapsular cataract surgery is the removal of the lens where the capsule is left in place. Each year in the United States, over a million cataracts are removed this way. Physicians and researchers continue to improve cataract surgery methods. Research from France in 2003 said that cataract removal and nonpenetrating glaucoma surgery can be combined in glaucoma patients.

There are two methods for extracapsular cataract surgery. The usual technique is phacoemulsification. A tiny incision (about 0.12in or 3 mm long) is made next to the cornea (the eye's outer covering), and an ultrasonic probe is used to break the cataract into minute pieces, which are then removed by suction. When the lens is too hard to be emulsified ultrasonically, the surgeon will use a different extracapsular technique requiring a larger incision. An incision about 0.37 in (9 mm) inches long is made, and the whole lens (without its capsule) is removed through the incision. Both kinds of extracapsular extraction leave the back of the capsule intact, so a silicone or plastic intraocular lens can be stably implanted in about the same location as the original lens.

The surgery takes about 30-60 minutes per eye.