How long should I stay for Cataract Surgery?
How is surgery performed?
What is the post-sugical care?
What are the possible risks and complications?
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How long should I stay for Cataract Surgery?
It is advisable to stay approximately 10 days to complete a whole process. On an arrival day, a patient should stay in a hotel to relax from a long flight and have a surgery on the following day. Cataract Surgery requires 1 night stay in the hospital. Post operative check up will be done 7 days after the surgery.
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How is surgery performed?
In Phacoemulsification, your surgeon makes a small incision where the cornea meets the conjunctiva and inserts a needle-thin probe. The surgeon then uses the probe, which transmits ultrasound waves, to break up the cataract and suction out the fragments. The lens capsule remains in place to provide support for the lens implant.
If phacoemulsification can't break up your cataract, your surgeon may do an extracapsular cataract extraction. This procedure requires a larger incision, where the cornea and sclera meet. Through this incision your surgeon opens the lens capsule, removes the nucleus in one piece and vacuums out the softer lens cortex, leaving the capsule in place.
Once the cataract has been removed by either phacoemulsification or extracapsular extraction, a clear artificial lens is implanted into the empty lens capsule. This implant, known as an intraocular lens (IOL), made of plastic, acrylic or silicone. It requires no care and becomes a permanent part of your eye. Some IOLs are rigid plastic and implanted through an incision that requires several stitches to close. However, many IOLs are flexible, allowing a smaller incision and no stitches.
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What is the post-sugical care?
Most patients return to a normal lifestyle almost immediately following cataract surgery. If cataract surgery is required in both eyes, a 4 to 8-week recovery from the first surgery will be required before the second operation is performed.
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What are the possible risks and complications?
Most of these risks are very rare and treatable:
Endophthalmitis (a severe infection inside the eye)
Suprachoroidal hemorrhage (bleeding in the eye)
Bulbous keratopathy (swelling of the cornea)
Rretinal detachment
Minor complications may include:
Secondary cataract
Macular edema (swelling of the central retina)
Retinal tear
Off-center lens placement