Holistic Cataract Care – All You Need to Know

A cataract is a dense, cloudy area that builds up in the lens of the eye. It progresses slowly and may result in a decrease or loss of vision. It can affect one or both eyes. Cataracts are more prominent in elderly people & found even in younger adults now.

Signs and Symptoms

Cataracts can lead to difficulty in reading, driving and facial recognition. The most common cataract symptoms include:

• Blurry vision
• Double vision
• Seeing colours as faded
• Glares in bright light
• Trouble seeing at night

What Causes Cataracts?

Eye lenses’ protein degrades over time making age a common cause. There are several other underlying causes of cataracts. These include:

• Smoking
• Overproduction of oxidants
• Excess exposure to UV radiation
• Prolonged usage of steroids and other medications
• Diseases, such as diabetes or hypothyroidism
• Genetics
• Trauma
• Treatment

Surgery is the most effective & successful way to eliminate cataracts. Cataract surgery, widely referred to as lens replacement surgery involves removal of the natural lens of the eye. During surgery, the opaque eye lens also called "crystalline lens" that has developed cataracts is replaced by an intraocular lens. Mostly traditional mono-focal lenses are used with Cataract surgery. However, even after successful surgery, patients need to wear glasses.

For those preferring not to wear glasses after cataract surgery, various types of multifocal lenses have been used in the past 25 years. Though they eliminate glasses to use, a lot of them are associated with rings in the vision and experience halos & glare with bright lights. The (EDOF) VIVITY Intraocular lenses appear to be a perfect solution for such commonly faced issues.

(EDOF) VIVITY Intraocular Lenses

EDOF (Extended Depth of focus) Vivity lens is the latest generation of intraocular lenses that is based on the platform of Mono-focal design with a modified surface that produces the bending of the light onto the retina giving a significant range for the person to be able to see distance, intermediate and up close mostly without glasses. The design form is such that it mimics the mono-focal implants so that all the night vision problem with the glare, rings around objects, associated with the multifocal lenses has disappeared completely. In short, the EDOF IOLs are based on the MonoFocal IOL design but function as a MultiFocal IOL. Most of the patients live a normal life after surgery and experience restoration of basic eye functionality.

Cataract Suite at Medanta

Medanta’s Cataract Refractive Surgical Suite, delivers Femtosecond laser-assisted bladeless cataract surgery, making the results accurate and precise. The Suite, comprising of Verion image-guided system, LenSx laser, Centurion Phacoemulsification with the Luxor operating microscope at Medanta, are the most accurate, state of the art technique recommended for cataract surgery.

Prevention of Cataracts

You can reduce the risk of developing cataracts by taking the following preventive measures:

• Wear sunglasses outside to minimize exposure to UVB rays
• Get regular eye examinations
• Reduce or stop smoking
• Eat oxidant rich fruits and vegetables
• Maintain recommended body weight
• Keep other medical conditions such as diabetes in check

Successful (EDOF) VIVITY IOL surgery of a patient by Dr. Sudipto Pakrasi