(07) 5655 2156
Mon - Fri: 9am - 4pm
Sat - Sun: By Appointment
- (07) 5609 6020
Gold Coast Private Hospital
Suite 3, Ground Floor
14 Hill St, Southport Qld 4215 (Directions)
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Cataract Surgery
What is a Cataract?
A Cataract may be diagnosed when a person’s natural lens, inside the eye, becomes cloudy or opaque. This normally occurs slowly over time, most commonly with age, but can also occur at any stage in someone’s life. Certain medical conditions and medications may cause cataracts to develop a little faster in some people. By and large, cataracts are not harmful to the eye but affect your ability to see clearly. You may be unaware that you have cataracts before you see your eye specialist or you may already be having trouble with symptoms such as those below.
Symptoms of a Cataract
• Blurring of vision
• An increasing need to upgrade your spectacles
• Increasing glare during the day, especially with sunlight
• Haloes or glare from lights at night.
• Faded or ‘washed out’ colours.
Treatment of Cataracts
There are no known medical treatments or eye drops to cure cataracts. The only method to successfully remove a cataract is through surgery and you may be aware of friends or relatives who have had this procedure. The cataract is removed by a microsurgical process called phacoemulsification, which is a high frequency ultrasound, and replaced by a synthetic lens that you will have for the rest of your life. Cataracts do not grow back. This is a very common and successful operation and is almost always done as a day procedure in a surgical facility. Often you will be given an eye anaesthetic to numb the eye so you will not feel any pain through the procedure. For safety reasons, only one eye is operated on at a time.
All our eye Doctors are surgeons who are experts in cataract surgery and will personalise your surgery depending on your needs. There are various options for correcting your vision and therefore at the time of consultation you will need additional measurements of your eye to ensure the optimal outcomes from cataract surgery.
Cataracts are the clouding of the lens on the eye.
The normal function of an eyes lens is to focus and direct light to the retina where it converts the light into nerve signals which are then passed through to the brain.
If the lens is cloudy, this causes blurry vision, due to the light hitting the eye’s lens which becomes distorted.
What causes cataracts?
Cataracts develop overtime with age, typically being seen in many people in their 60s and older.
Cataracts change the colour of the lens from the clear natural state to a yellow/brown colour, typically causing vision to become a brownish tint.
It is known that diseases such as diabetes, inflammation and eye trauma can lead to cause cataracts.
What are the symptoms of cataracts?
The most obvious symptom of cataracts is blurry vision from the cloudiness of the lens of an eye.
If you experience difficulty with bright lights, such as glare and sunlight.
Early stages of cataracts do not impede on quality of life. If left untreated, visual loss and legal blindness could occur.
How are cataracts treated?
The only way to treat Cataracts that are effecting daily life and activities such as watching tv, driving and reading, is with surgery.
Surgery involves removing the cloudy natural lens and replacing it with a clear artificial lens.
What are the risks of cataract surgery?
Cataract surgery is one of the most common and is one of the safest.
Around 90% of patients who have had the procedure, experience clearer vision as a result.
With advances with technology, cataract surgery has dramatically improved and the success rate is high.
That said, with many surgical procedures, there are always risks involved and they could be:
- Internal bleeding in the eye
- Infection
- Inflammation of the eye
- Glaucoma – increase of pressure in the eye
- Reduction of vision (partial or complete)
How much does Cataract surgery cost?
The cost depends on several factors, such as whether you have private health insurance and how much cover you have. The cost of the artificial lens varies as well as there are different types.
Medicare can also cover some of the costs of cataract surgery.
We recommend that you book in for an assessment so that you can get a quote based on your individual needs.
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Contact
- (07) 5655 2156
- (07) 5609 6020
- info@gceos.com.au
-
Suite 3, Ground Floor
14 Hill St, Southport QLD 4215 -
Mon-Fri: 9:00am-4:00pm
Sat & Sun: By Appointment