WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CATARACTS
Incidentally, out of every 5 cataract patients I see, 3 believe that eye drops can cure it, 1 believe that it is a curse and only 1 is ready and open to what I have to say.
A cataract, simply put is when the pupil is white (see pic below). A cataract doesn’t grow ON the eye as people commonly believe, it is IN the eye.
Some of the common risk factors are:
Age (usually from 50 years up)
Injury (you can have a trauma today but the cataract that manifests after 20 years)
Lifestyle (Smokers, you cook with firewood, you are always under the sun, you are overweight, you drink lots of alcohol etc)
Systemic disease (You are hypertensive, you are short-sighted, etc)
Signs and Symptoms of this cataract include:
- The lens is white.
- Blurred vision
- Cloudy (Harmattan) vision
- Sandy sensation
- Vision loss
The only Treatment (for now) is SURGERY.
Yep! I had to put it in capital letters for those of you who like buying eye drops online with promises of ‘It will melt the Cataracts’
Please, we have to be very careful.
A cataract is IN the eye. Before anything can ‘melt’ it, it has to ‘melt’ the cornea (the outer surface of the eye).
And when your cornea melts, the only way to replace it is by corneal transplant which is another SURGERY (are you feeling me now?).
And the last patient I sent for a corneal transplant spent about 1.2M and that was sometime in 2015.
Cataract surgery is not as bad or complicated as it sounds.
You have 2 options: Either via laser surgery (my recommendation based on your financial capacity) or through the normal way (still not bad).
With a laser, you are done in less than 7 minutes and all my co-managed patients enjoyed even improved vision.
The normal surgery takes less than 15 minutes but can be more than 7 minutes.
Research is ongoing as to the best non-invasive way to extract an opacified lens from the eye and replace it with a clear one but until we succeed, this is what we have.
The good news is that blindness due to cataracts is completely irreversible especially if done well and if one adheres to instructions given post and after surgery.
Ways to prevent or delay the onset of this cataract is
- Wearing transition glasses (even without a prescription) to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays.
- Avoid smoke (both smoking and smokers)
- Work on your weight.
- Manage your BP (or don’t even have all)
- Avoid injury (don’t even go and separate fight).
All in all, if you, your parents, relation, etc has a cataract, here are a few things you (they) should do:
- Go to a reputable clinic.
- Ask questions about the doctor (not the hospital) who will carry out the surgery.
- Find out the type of surgery recommended.
- Find out the doctor’s success ratio.
- Ask for a post and after-surgery card and study the dos and don’t.
- Ensure you are mentally, emotionally, and physically ready.
- Have someone who will help you because there will be certain things you won’t be able to do after the surgery.
- Be ready to listen and obey ALL instructions including REST.
- There could be more but these are the few tips I can remember right now.
If you have any questions, contributions or you have had an experience, kindly drop in the comments, and let’s discuss.
