Lens replacement surgery is carried out in a 15... 10 to 15-minute procedure, topically
where the patient is awake. There is no pain involved. It's a small incision, a micro incision
on the side of your cornea which allows us access to your lens, your natural lens. The
natural lens as we get older gets harder, is unable to focus particularly for near in
many cases and then it's cloudier, and that natural lens when it's cloudier, we call that
a cataract. So lens replacement surgery involves removing your natural, many times cloudier
lens out of the eye through an ultrasound machine that sucks out the cataract or the
cloudier lens and then replacing that within the same anatomical structure, replacing it
with an artificial lens implant. That artificial lens implant is injected in through the micro
incision and is designed to stay there for the rest of your life and stay nice and clear
and give you better vision.
There are-- lens replacement surgery is basically
the name given to removing your cloudier lens or your harder lens which is unable to focus
for near or even far in many cases, and then replacing that with a new artificial lens.
So, lens replacement surgery is that. The only difference being within that surgery you have
a choice of which lens we are going to replace your natural lens with. So these artificial
lens implants, there are a variety of different ones. Some are, for example, mono-focal: giving
you really good distance vision, but you'll need glasses for reading, and that's the traditional
lens that we've been using for over 40 years. Nowadays, there are better lens implants for
distance vision and near vision called the multifocals, and within the multifocal there
are different designs. All of these design lenses are trying to make people less dependent
on spectacles and therefore, you know, giving you nice clear vision permanently for distance
and for reading, and about 90% of people after such procedures never wear
spectacles again.
Lens replacement surgery is effective in the
majority of cases. Like I said, 90% of people or more never wear glasses again after such
a procedure where the lens is replaced with a multifocal lens, for example, giving you distance
vision and reading vision. You can do your computer, you can drive without needing glasses,
and that lens is designed to stay there for the rest of your life and give you that clear
vision, and providing the rest of the eye stays healthy, then you should actually keep that
vision because the lens does not rely on the muscles of your eye. It's stable optic lens
that will not degrade and will not require replacement in the majority of cases.
Lens replacement surgery is a quick procedure, takes about 10-15 minutes. It's done whilst
you're awake. It's painless. The recovery should be quick. In that, your vision will
be blurry for a day or two. You may notice your eyes are a little bit scratchy and watery
on the day of the procedure that evening, but the majority of patients the next morning
when they wake up, they don't have any pain, shouldn't have any discomfort really and you're
free to go about your life as normal. You will need to use some eye drops for about
a month and they're important because they help the eye to heal in the right way, and
over the first week or so, you should notice your vision clearing and getting better day
by day. For example, it may take you in the first day or two when you pick up a book if
you've just had a lens replacement with the multifocal lens, it will take you a moment
to focus, but as the eye heals as your brain gets used to the new vision, the majority
of patients are picking up a book and reading it within the week of surgery and no more
glasses
Yes, the side-effects from a lens replacement
surgery are important. In that, everyone should be informed of exactly the risks and the benefits
of the procedure. The risks are very, very small actually with regards to lens replacement.
Lens replacement surgery is cataract surgery. It's the fancy name given to cataract surgery
when you're having the lens replaced before you develop the cataract or even if you've
got the cataract, you're having the lens replaced with a premium lens implant, a multifocal
lens implant. So we know a lot about cataract surgery. We've been doing it for 50 plus years.
There's a lot of data, more data this procedure than any other procedure on the planet and
it is also known to be the safest procedure on the planet, because we've got, you know,
tremendous success rates of greater than 99% of people noticing their visions better after
this procedure. However, there are always going to be risks involved. The risks with
lens replacement surgery are small but one in a thousand chance of having a serious problem
and that should always be discussed with your surgeon before you decide to have the procedure.
With regards to the actual lenses, some of the lenses can give you halos or glare particularly
at night time. So again, the discussion needs to take place with your surgeon with regards
to what that will be like and what can be done to avoid that. Now, if you do a lot of
nighttime activity; you drive a car at night, you should be aware that halos and glare is
a possible side effect on some of these multifocal lenses and I have to say some of them have
a better profile with regards to side effects than others, and that's one of the reasons
I will always discuss this with our patients and choose a suitable lens for him or her.