New Treatment For Cataracts

Des Moines, May 11th, 2005 - Most of us have bad vision to some degree. And
most of us fix it with glasses or contacts. People with cataracts can do
that to, for a while. But eventually some people go blind. Now, there's a
new artificial lens that can change all that. After going through a brief
surgery, most patients don't ever have to wear glasses again.

"I can read the first two lines. And the second one is D. F. N. but they're
blurry and doubled and I can't read the second line," says Susan Harrell as
she reads the eye chart. She doesn't see very well these days.

Like an estimated 257-thousand Iowans aged forty and older, Susan has
cataracts. She relies more and more on her glasses but even those don't
always help. "Driving at night... I can't drive places that I don't know the
route very well that I'm not really familiar with because I probably rely
more on my familiarity than my ability to see at night."

The word cataract literally means waterfall. For people with advanced
cataracts, vision can be described as trying to see through a waterfall.
What happens is, the lens of the eye clouds over. It continues until it gets
to the point that it prevents light from passing through the lens. It can
cause blurriness and can get so severe people can go blind.

"This is something that occurs over a long period of time. You don't notice
for the most part there's been a change." Susan will have the cataracts
surgically removed. It's the only way to get rid of cataracts. And then
doctors will implant a new lens just approved by the Food and Drug
Administration.

Unlike most lenses used for cataract surgery, the new ones allow patients to
see near and far. Which means the majority of patients never have to wear
glasses again. And unlike Lasik surgery where a laser is used to reshape the
cornea. There is no need for a laser, the new implanted lens does the trick.
Doctors say after the surgery, Susan should have 20/20 vision or better.

The patient is fully conscious during the procedure. After numbing the area,
doctors then scrape away the cataracts and finally, they implant a new lens.
The entire process takes about twenty minutes.

"It was completely pain free," says Susan. And she can already see better
than before surgery. We followed up with her several weeks later to get the
full effect. Two weeks after surgery, Susan is reading the lines for 20/20
vision. That's something she couldn't do before. And not only does she
notice the difference, but so does her family.

"I can read without having my glasses," says Susan. "I can drive more easily
at night and driving to work, doing things in a crowd, I can look up and
recognize faces from further away."

Susan also doesn't have to wear glasses anymore. But it's not easy letting
go... "Just to make sure, I carried them with me for a couple of days. Then
I started leaving them down in my office for a couple of days. And now I
leave them in the coat that I wear into work or at home instead of carrying
them with me."

The surgery made a big difference for Susan. She no longer worries about
driving at night or about losing her glasses. For the first time in years
she can once again see clearly and put everything into focus.

Depending on insurance coverage, patients pay out of pocket three-thousand
to forty-four-hundred for both eyes. That's on top of what insurance pays
for. And Medicare says it now considers the surgery a partially covered
benefit.

Back to 2004 Archive

Back to what's New

Back to Home