Refractive cataract surgery
Refractive cataract surgery consists in the replacement of the opaque lens (cataract) with an artificial lens, optimised to correct the visual disorder. The operation is performed under local anaesthetic (just a few drops of anaesthetic eye-drop in the eyes) and it is completely painless. The surgery in unilateral, i.e. performed on a single eye per operation.
During the first step the opaque lens is removed by an instrument called phacoemulsification probe or by a specific laser. The natural membrane that wraps up the lens is kept intact.
During the second step an artificial lens is implanted in the eye of the patient, replacing the natural lens previously removed. Nowadays a wide variety of lenses for refractive cataract surgery exists: monofocal lenses (optimising your sight at a certain distance), or multifocal lenses, that have to be implanted in both eyes to maximise the focus of close objects (to improve your vision in the distance and near and to correct presbyopia).
After the surgery the patient will not feel any pain. Visual recovery is fast.
The patient will need one day in order to properly focus far objects in case of both monofocal and multifocal lenses implant, while there will be a gradual adjustment to focus close objects (from a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of a few months from the implant of the second lens).
