La cataract is a disorder that affects a large number of people, especially over 60. “It consists ofopacification of the lensa small natural lens located inside our eye that has the purpose of filtering the light that penetrates through the pupil, helping to focus on the retina “, explains Professor Scipione Rossi, on the board of directors of SISO Companyto Italian of Ophthalmological Sciences, and Director of the Ocular Microsurgery UOC of theSan Carlo di Nancy Hospital in Rome. But from the research comes important news to prevent it, treat it and at the same time solve the most common sight defects.
The most performed intervention in Italy
Cataract surgery is the most performed in operating theaters throughout Italy. In 2021 covered well 650 thousand people. IS the safestsince it boasts an incidence of complications around 3%and it’s the only one that rejuvenates the eye, giving it back the efficiency of twenty years. This intervention in recent years has not only achieved incredible goals in terms of effectiveness and safety, but it is opening up new perspectives for the recovery of vision defects in people affected by a cataract even absent, sending the laser into the attic.
New perspectives of science
Good news for patients with visual defects: in one fell swoop they can get rid of glasses forever from ‘mole’ and prevent the risk of cataracts concrete already from the age of 50. According to SISO experts, cataract surgery is the surgery of the future. It will be proposed at an early agein who has consistent visual defects with or without an only incipient cataractand in selected cases even absent. It is the evolution of the cataract operation which, performed mainly to correct blurred vision, in recent years has increasingly transformed into an opportunity to correct all vision defectsnear and far.
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Goodbye lenses
Thanks to the new surgical techniques, which allow safe intervention, it is indeed possible replace the “clouded” lens with intraocular lenses able to correct myopia and presbyopia. In this way you can go back to seeing better than before, even without waiting for the cataract to be “mature” and the lens to be very opaque, as in the past. Also for this the average age for cataract surgerywhich is now 60 years will subside in the near future from 50 years onwards, even if the lens is only slightly opaque, or the cataract is absentit will be possible to operate for get rid of glasses and contact lenses. Also identified the “Magic number” that guides the decision to intervene: when the sum of the vision of both eyes drops below 13 tenths, it’s time to operate. The leading experts of the Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences (SISO).
The super hi-tech intraocular lenses
«The current ones super hi-tech intraocular lenses offer a full range of fixesfrom bifocal to trifocal, from multifocal to accommodative, and therefore allow for “Redo” your sight without having to wear glasses anymore. In fact, they eliminate visual defects with two main advantages over correction with the excimer laser. First of all, laser surgery is associated with a greater risk of the occurrence of the dry eye syndrome; also, intraocular lenses they do not change and the view remains unchangedwhile with the other corrective interventions it is possible to have a regression and the reappearance of a partial visual defect », continues Professor Appolloni.
Pediatric cataract
Not everyone knows that even in neonatal age it is possible to suffer from cataracts. There congenital cataract is one of the most common eye malformations with often inauspicious outcomes from a visual point of view. It is estimated that 4 out of 10,000 births are affected and it is not a condition that can be managed by every eye doctor. In Italy many children’s hospitals and some university clinics they deal with this surgery with competence, which has peculiarities in terms of surgical technique and pre and post-operative management.
“Operate a baby of a few weeks of life requires great experience and a careful examination of the causes and the real prognosis. Unlike cataracts in adulthood, the procedure must be less invasivebut it must also predict the subsequent growth of the eyeballwhich is why, at a very young age, implantation of the intraocular lens may be less suitable, “he explains Professor Paolo NucciFull Professor of Ophthalmology ofUniversity of Milan.
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