Currently, cataract surgery is usually performed by microincision (that is, 2.5 mm hand incisions that do not require sutures) and using equipment known as a phacoemulsifier that vibrates at ultrasonic speed to pulverize and aspirate the cataract.

After removing the cataract, the intraocular lens is inserted into the eye, which is always necessary.

There are many types of intraocular lenses, spherical lenses with which patients with a high possibility can be left with good distance vision, but require wearing glasses after surgery to read. When a condition called astigmatism exists in the cornea, a toric lens is needed to correct it.

Now multifocal intraocular lenses are also available, allowing adequate vision for both distance and near, and therefore offer the patient the independence of glasses for both distances (which is achieved with this type of lens in more than 90% of cases). ). Now, not all patients are good candidates for this type of lens, and therefore a careful evaluation is required before surgery.

On the other hand, given the effectiveness and safety of modern cataract surgery, you do not necessarily have to have a significant cataract to be a candidate for one of these lenses.  People over 50 or 55 years of age and who have significant myopia or hyperopia, even when the opacity of the lens is incipient, could be good candidates for a procedure called phacorefractive surgery, which seeks to remove the lens to place a multifocal intraocular lens (with the same technique of cataract surgery) but made to achieve independence from glasses, in cases where refractive surgery treatment with Excimer laser is not the best option.

The most common cataract in our environment is the senile cataract caused by aging and deterioration of the lens proteins due to age, but there are also other causes for this disease: metabolic, traumatic, inflammatory, congenital, among others.

Some related diseases are:

• Age-related cataracts
• Cataract due to trauma
• Congenital cataracts

The only definitive treatment that exists, today, to treat cataracts is surgery.

Periodic eye checkups allow early detection of cataracts, which prevents the problem from developing and facilitates its treatment.

In order to accurately evaluate each case and make decisions regarding the aforementioned procedures, it is important to take a complete clinical history, state-of-the-art diagnostic tests, and a comprehensive approach to the patient by the ophthalmologist. Let us remember that each surgery has precise indications and you must have good advice when implanting an intraocular lens.