Cataract surgery is an operation to remove your eye’s lens when it is cloudy.
The purpose of your lens is to bend (refract) light rays that come into the eye to help you see. Your own lens should be clear, but with a cataract it is cloudy. Having a cataract can be like looking through a foggy or dusty car windshield. Things may look blurry, hazy or less colorful.
The only way to remove a cataract is with surgery. Your ophthalmologist will recommend removing a cataract when it keeps you from doing things you want or need to do.
During cataract surgery, your cloudy natural lens is removed and replaced with a clear artificial lens. That lens is called an intraocular lens (IOL). Your ophthalmologist will talk with you about IOLs and how they work.
What are the risks of cataract surgery?
Like any surgery, cataract surgery carries risks of problems or complications. Here are some of those risks:
Eye infection.
Bleeding in the eye.
Ongoing swelling of the front of the eye or inside of the eye
Swelling of the retina (the nerve layer at the back of your eye).
Detached retina (when the retina lifts up from the back of the eye).
Damage to other parts of your eye.
Pain that does not get better with over-the-counter medicine.
Vision loss.
The IOL implant may become dislocated, moving out of position.
