Cataract Surgery Edison
As you age, it is common to develop cataracts, which consist of a clouding of your eye’s lens. Cataract surgery is performed to treat this condition. During the procedure, Edison cataract surgeon, Dr. Hitesh K. Patel will remove your eye’s cloudy lens and replace it with an artificial lens, called an intraocular lens (IOL), in order to restore your eye’s focusing power.
Surgical Procedure
Cataract surgery is generally performed on an outpatient basis. Dr. Patel will use a local or topical anesthetic to numb the region and eliminate any pain you may otherwise experience. The skin near your eye will be cleansed, and Dr. Patel will make a small incision in your eye. An ultrasound technique will break up the cataract so that it can be removed from your eye via suction, and an IOL will be inserted into your eye to replace your natural lens.
Dr. Patel often performs limbal relaxing incisions during cataract procedures in order to reduce astigmatism at the time of the surgery. Cataract surgery is a primary focus of Dr. Patel’s practice, and he has extensive experience treating more severe and advanced forms of the condition.
Recovery and Follow-Up Care
After surgery, Dr. Patel will place a protective covering over your eye. It is important to wear this covering whenever you sleep for approximately one week following your procedure. Dr. Patel will also provide you with eye drops which you must apply several times a day for the first few weeks of recovery. It is important to wear sunglasses whenever you are in bright light to protect your eye while it heals.
For the first week of recovery, you will need to avoid:
- Strenuous activity
- Heavy lifting
- Allowing water to splash into your eye – keep your eye closed while showering to avoid infection
- Allowing dust particles to enter your eye – this might cause an infection
You may experience blurred vision immediately following your procedure, but this will gradually subside over the next few weeks. The majority of cataract surgery patients experience vision of 20/40 or better following cataract surgery. However, it is important to follow Dr. Patel’s instructions diligently in order to ensure proper healing and optimal vision.
IOL Options
IOL technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, and as a result, you have a variety of cataract lens options to choose from when replacing your eye’s clouded lens.
Traditional IOLs are monofocal, providing clear vision at only one distance. While this is a definite improvement over the vision you experienced before cataract surgery, you will still need corrective lenses in order to see clearly at all distances.
Many of the newer and more advanced IOLs are multifocal, enabling you to see clearly at a variety of distances. As a result, you generally will not require corrective lenses following your procedure. Dr. Patel offers a variety of multifocal lenses, including:
CATALYS® Laser Cataract Surgery
As the human eye continues to age, it is incredibly common for both men and women to develop cataracts. Cataracts most commonly take the form of a cloudy look over the lens in one or both eyes. This can negatively affect a person’s ability to see in a host of different ways, which is why laser cataract surgery is so important. Dr. Patel uses a highly effective and minimally invasive form of laser cataract surgery called CATALYS® to restore the natural focusing power of the eye as efficiently, accurately and safely as possible.
The CATALYS® Surgical Procedure
The CATALYS® system uses a series of precision lasers to aid with the removal of the eye’s crystalline lens during cataract surgery. CATALYS® brings with it a host of different benefits not only for the patients themselves, but also for the professionals performing the surgery in the first place.
CATALYS® uses an advanced liquid optics interface to aid with not only docking preventing the rise in intraocular pressure, resulting in superior imaging and laser delivery capabilities.
CATALYS® also utilizes an integral guidance system that will provide Dr. Patel with a full volume optical coherence tomography resource to help with mapping and to guide laser delivery so that the end result will be as accurate as possible.
CATALYS® also allows for Dr. Patel to successfully complete both the segmentation and softening of the cataract in a patient with an adjustable grid sizing mechanism for ease of use.
All of these techniques work together to form a common goal: they’re designed with delivering the excellent and advanced level of precision necessary to not only make sure that the procedure is successful, but to make sure that it is as minimally invasive on behalf of the patient as possible. The guidance system, for example, allows Dr. Patel to establish a series of safety zones to further customize treatment depending on the patient they’re actually working with. The entire system was designed from the top down to insure that laser pulses are delivered to the exact location that Dr. Patel needs, which ultimately goes a long way towards a superior level of laser cataract surgery than has ever been available before.
While Dr. Patel will work with monofocal lens implants, he generally recommends multifocal alternatives with his patients since they provide vastly superior results.
Schedule A Consultation
Please contact our cataract surgeon in New Jersey today to schedule your initial cataracts consultation with Patel Eye Associates, serving Edison, New Brunswick, and Middlesex County, NJ.
Questions To Ask Your Cataract Surgeon
If I have cataracts, must I have surgery?
If left untreated, cataracts will cause your vision to continually deteriorate, eventually leading to blindness. Delaying treatment will not impact the success of the cataract removal procedure, but your best option is to speak frankly with New Jersey cataract surgeons , Dr. Hitesh K. Patel and Dr. Himanshu S. Shah to determine the best time to remove your eye’s clouded lens.
Which replacement lens is my best choice?
Monofocal lenses were once the only approved cataract lens option. Because monofocal lenses improved vision at only one point, patients often continued to require corrective lenses to achieve their best vision. Today’s technologically superior multifocal lenses improve vision at all distances so that glasses or contact lenses may no longer be needed. For this reason, Dr. Patel and Dr. Shah generally recommend multifocal IOL options such as:
- ReStor
- ReZoom
- Tecnis
I have cataracts in one eye. Will I develop cataracts in my other eye?
Most likely, yes. For most patients, one eye is more severely affected by cataracts. Therefore, Dr. Patel and Dr. Shah will generally remove the cataracts in this eye first. As the vision in your second eye is affected and your quality of vision gets increasingly impaired, Dr. Patel and Dr. Shah may recommend an additional procedure to remove the cataracts in your other eye.
Can I wear my contact lenses after cataract removal?
Yes, you can, but the good news is you may not need to. Intraocular lenses (IOLs) may improve your vision to 20/20. Even if contacts are still necessary, the prescription is likely to be much less strong than before the procedure.
How will IOLs improve my vision?
As the cataract-clouded lenses are replaced, most patients experience improved vision almost immediately. Within 24 hours, there is significant improvement. Many patients no longer need corrective lenses after the initial recovery period. Naturally, your outcome depends on the type of lens implanted.
