Cataracts

Patients with cataracts see through a slightly cloudy lens that becomes more and more foggy over time with a high sensitivity to glare.

The cause of the foggy lens is due changes in the metabolism that develop with age but can also accompany other diseases.

In the last 15 years, sensational new surgical methods have been developed that can correct cataracts and make them almost harmless. In a so-called PHACO procedure the cloudy lens is removed and replaced with a new intraocular lens (IOL). In many cases the procedure can be carried out on an outpatient basis. The means that the operation only lasts a few minutes and the patient can then be released to go home.

Patients make their decision together with their ophthalmologists when the right stage is for surgery. This may depend on how extreme the impairment is and just how important good vision is for their particualar job or hobby. Just in Germany as many as up to 400,000 cataract operations are carried out per year.