Cataract Surgery Recovery Tips

Cataract Surgery Recovery is a topic that raises many questions about what it is like. Many people have now had the procedure. If you know someone, ask them about their experience. What follows is a typical case - some people's experience will vary from this, of course.

How Will I Feel During Cataract Surgery Recovery?

Following surgery, your eye may be sensitive to touch and maybe even a little scratchy for a few days. You may see a little glare or halos around car headlights. This is normal and will diminish over a few days and then disappear.

The clarity of your vision will be dramatically better if you don't have any other eye disease. If you do have another eye condition, such as Macular Degeneration , then your central vision will still be affected by it. Your peripheral vision and glare sensitivity should improve though, making it easier to get around on your own.

What Should I Do to Help my Cataract Surgery Recovery?

• Eyedrops are prescribed to prevent infection and inflammation. Use them as and when you have been instructed.
• A protective eye shield may need to be used for a few nights to prevent you rubbing your eye while sleeping
• Don't wear makeup until your surgeon tells you it is safe to do so.
• Wear Sunglasses when outdoors - it will feel a lot brighter now!
• You are quite safe to read and watch television and do normal things, except heavy lifting. Don't engage in strenuous exertion for a month after surgery.
• After giving your eyes a month to settle down, you may return to your Optometrist for new glasses. These may be required if it is not possible to eliminate your distance prescription. Most people will need reading glasses for some of the time. But you will find that you are less reliant on them in good lighting.

What Should I Avoid?

Immediately following surgery, you should avoid touching or rubbing your eye or removing the protective eye covering. You will not be allowed to drive yourself home. Don't engage in strenuous exertion for a month after surgery.

The cataract surgery recovery process described here is meant to be representative of most cataract procedures, which occur without complications. Individual results may vary. No information contained here is intended to substitute for a physician's advice.

Cataract Surgery Complications

Cataract eye surgery is one of the most successful procedures in medicine. However, as with all surgery, complications can arise from the surgery or the anaesthesia. Cataract Surgery Complications are rare if you are in good health and don't have other serious eye disease such as macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy.

Bruising or black eye. In those cases where an injection was used to numb your eye, you may get some bruising around the eye. It is just a bruise and will go away on its own.

Infection or endophthalmitis. Endophthalmitis, an inflammation of the eye triggered by infection, is also very rare and most commonly in people deficient immune systems, such as diabetes.

Developing an infection after cataract eye surgery is extremely rare, occurring only once in several thousand surgeries. You will be given antibiotic drops before, during, and after surgery to further minimize the risk of infection.

Inflammation. Swelling inside your eye that is unrelated to infection is usually minor and can be easily treated with anti-inflammatory drops after surgery.

Cystoid macular edema. Within a few weeks to few months, some people get swelling in their retinal tissue at the area of central vision (macula). This makes your central vision blurry, and your doctor will most likely give you a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Secondary cataract. In the months or years after surgery, some people develop a condition known colloquially as "secondary cataract". It is not truly a cataract but a thickening of the capsule that used to hold the natural lens and now holds your new plastic lens (IOL). It makes your vision blurry again.

Your surgeon will perform a YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) laser capsulotomy, using the laser to create a small hole in the membrane to allow light through. It is quick and painlessly done in the consulting room. You won't need to return to the day surgery for this. Your vision will be clear again within hours.

This is not an exhaustive list of the risks and possible Cataract Surgery Complications. These are the more common problems that you will need to weigh up. Each person's eyes are different, so you need to have a cataract surgeon examine you and discuss your particular case with you before you can decide if you want to proceed.