Cataract

Our normal healthy ocular lens (crystalline lens) inside the eye is crystal clear for optimum transparency of the light. A sufficient amount of light should hit the retina to see things clearly. If the lens is completely opaque (clouded by matured cataract), the light will not travel to the back of the eye resulting in loss of sight. There are many risk factors to develop cataracts. The most common type is age-related cataract. Almost everybody starts to develop cataract in their 5th or 6th decades of their life. It may expedite according to their lifestyle and systemic diseases they have. Exposure to harmful radiations. Especially UV. Trauma to the eye (lens) develops cataract very fast. Prolonged taking of some medicines. There are some types of congenital cataracts. (Surgery is needed upon the severity of the opacity to prevent the irreversible blindness of the child) The only treatment is to remove the cataract. There are many surgical methods used nowadays. It will take less than 10 minutes to remove the cataractous lens and implant the new artificial intraocular. We find some people are very scared to get this surgery done here in Sri Lanka. This is a very simple surgery done under local anesthesia and no need to be scared of it.