A cataract is a condition when the lens of your eye gets cloudy. The eye lens is a part of the optic system of the eye, which participates in the vision. If it isn’t healthy, it causes visual disturbances. The ideal lens of the eye is transparent which enables clear vision. Babies have such a lens at birth. As a person grows old, transparency is being reduced. A patient with a cataract describes his vision as “a fog” or “a shadow in the eyes” and it is sometimes visible with a naked eye.
A cataract develops gradually as the lens loses its transparency over time and gives an increasingly worse vision. In the early phase, cataract causes unclear, blurred vision, whereas advanced cataract causes a completely blurred lens.
Cataract Symptoms
The first and basic symptom of cataract is blurred vision. Visual acuity is lower and the images we see are unclear and blurred. The patient most often thinks his diopter appeared or increased. Cataract is diagnosed when the patient visits an ophthalmologist. Other cataract symptoms include double vision, bad night vision, changing glasses often, pale images, yellowish images, and glare caused by light scattering.
A cataract makes normal life harder. Blurred vision slows down and makes daily activities difficult; it wears you down and makes you feel uncertain. Reading, driving (especially at night), doing sports, etc. are all activities that become hard to do. Therefore, it is necessary to notice them because the symptoms of a cataract can be the same as the symptoms of some eye disorders and diseases. For that reason, it is necessary to visit an ophthalmologist and do a detailed eye examination.
Types of Cataract
There are different types of cataract – classifications are done according to a larger number of criteria. Depending on the level of progression of cloudiness, there is a stationary and progressive cataract. Depending on the degree of cloudiness, there is a partial and complete cataract. According to what causes the condition, cataracts can be senile, congenital, metabolic, traumatic, secondary, and complicated.
Depending on the patient’s age when a cataract occurs there are congenital, pre-senile, and age-related (senile) cataracts. According to where it occurs, cataracts can be central, peripheral, equatorial, capsular (on the front or back of the capsule), and cortical (on the front or back of the cortex). Depending on the cloudiness, cataract can be like a spindle, star (stellate), disc-shaped, punctate, and dust-like.
How is a Cataract Diagnosed?
A cataract is simple to diagnose at an examination with an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist talks to the patient and analyzes his symptoms. Then the doctor puts eye drops for cycloplegia and checks visual acuity, eye ciliary muscle movability, takes ocular pressure, checks the anterior and posterior segment of the eye looking through a slit-lamp biomicroscope. During the examination of the anterior eye segment, the doctor can see the type and intensity of cataract.
How is a Cataract Treated?
The only cure for cataract is cataract surgery which prevents further cloudiness of the lens and blindness. At the place of the natural clouded lens, the surgeon puts an artificial lens.
The “gold standard” for cataract surgery is ultrasound surgery (Phacoemulsification). Most ophthalmologists can recognize cataract correctly but only a doctor with experience in the treatment of such ocular diseases (the so-called anterior segment diseases) can recommend the right moment for cataract surgery. Also, your eye surgeon will explain to you which of various lenses (monofocal, aspheric, toric, or multifocal) fit best into your needs to make your life and work undisturbed.