What did you do to celebrate cataract surgery? I feel like I've been given a new life after my surgery yesterday!

The way we do cataract/lens implant surgery is truly a modern medical miracle. But how quickly we get used to good things and come to think of them as normal and expected.

When I started my training in the late 1970s, intraocular lenses (IOLs) for cataract patients were very controversial. We had to wait until vision was so bad that glasses couldn't help at all and it was a matter of surgery or quitting work or hobbies. Patient needed general anesthesia and stayed for several days in the hospital. Post-operative glasses were so thick patients looked like owls.

Now we can replace the natural lens with even better optical quality IOLs that can correct not just the cloudy lens, but Nearsightedness, Astigmatism, and even Presbyopia at the same time. Surgery is out-patient and most people return to normal activity in 24-48 hours.

Written by J. Trevor Woodhams, M.D. - Chief of Surgery, Woodhams Eye Clinic