Cataracts Symptoms

A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye. The clouding prevents light from reaching the retina at the back of the eye, causing blurry vision. If the clouding is mild, the vision may be corrected with glasses. Severe conditions require surgery to remove the cataract.

Diagnosis

• Cataracts are diagnosed by symptoms, an eye exam, and medical history. Cataracts are most common in people over age 65 but can occur in children, newborn babies exposed to German measles during pregnancy, or from an eye injury. Heredity, smoking, and diabetes can all contribute to the development of cataracts.

Symptoms

• The symptoms of cataracts can include blurred or decreased vision, double vision, decreased sharpness, seeing halos around light sources, impaired night vision, light sensitivity, yellowing of colors or difficulty distinguishing shades of purple and blue. Cataracts can occur in one eye but usually occur in both eyes. All the symptoms of cataracts are related to problems with light passing through the lens of the eye.

Types

• Specific symptoms occur depending on where the cataract is located on the lens. The subcapsular cataract occurs under the capsule and can occur at the back of the lens. Light going to the retina is blocked, causing glare, halos around light sources and difficulty reading. The cortical cataract consists of streaks going through the edge of the lens creating glare. The nuclear cataract affects the center of the lens causing poor night vision, problems distinguishing blues and purples and nearsightedness.

Considerations

• A cataract is usually painless and does not damage the eye unless it becomes a
  hypermature cataract. In this case the cataract is completely white and can become inflamed. This requires surgery. If a cataract interferes with vision and glasses do not correct the problem, surgery is required.

Surgery

• Over two million cataract surgeries are done each year worldwide. Cataract surgery is considered safe and has a high success rate. As with any surgery, it carries some risks. These include infection, bleeding, scarring that could impair vision or problems with general anesthesia if it is used. Some procedures are done under a local anesthetic or a topical anesthetic. The procedure takes less than an hour to perform and is usually done on an outpatient basis. It takes about six weeks for the eye to heal. Activity and some other restrictions are necessary during this time. If cataracts are present in both eyes, two procedures will be performed. The second one is done after the first eye is healed. It is necessary to follow doctor's orders after surgery for the best results.