In most cases, cataract surgery may help a person’s eyesight without posing any significant risks. Serious problems are extremely uncommon among people all over the world who have cataract surgery annually. Everyone heals differently, but there are several concerns that frequently arise in the days following surgery when the eyes are regaining their vision.
Here are 10 issues you could face following cataract surgery, along with their causes and solutions.
Sensitivity to light
There may be some temporary sensitivity to light after cataract surgery in Sydney as a result of dry eye. But if your eyes close or squint instinctively when exposed to light, you may have iritis, an inflammation of the eye.
Your eye doctor may recommend using steroid drops. Affected individuals may need to wear protective eyewear for a few months until their iritis clears up. In most cases, this occurs because of a “rebound” after anti-inflammatory drops have been gradually reduced.
Persistent light sensitivity can also be caused by conditions like dry eyes or blepharitis. There may be underlying issues that require fixing. Sensitivity to light at its extreme level may indicate an illness. The time to contact an ophthalmologist is now if you’re having this problem.
Feeling like there’s something in your eye
After having eye surgery, many people report feeling as though they have sand in their eye or that their eye is gritty. It’s a common feeling after having an incision made in your eye, and it should go away within a week or two. A dry eye can make the pain endure up to three months. A stitch or suture may be necessary for the eye of certain individuals undergoing cataract surgery. Don’t worry, but sometimes doctors have to remove sutures following surgery.
Poor Vision
Vision problems are frequent in the days and sometimes weeks following cataract surgery. The natural swelling of the eye that happens during surgery is usually to blame for this.
The likelihood of inflammation increases in patients whose cataract treatments are bigger, denser, or harder. Initially, these individuals may have temporary blurred vision or a “steam room” sensation.
Your ophthalmologist may recommend anti-inflammatory eye drops; use them as instructed. Over the course of a few days to a week, the swelling should go down and your eyesight should improve. It may take longer, even a month or more, for patients with cornea illness, like Fuchs dystrophy, to get rid of the swelling.
See an eye doctor if the blurriness persists for more than a week. Some other reasons for persistent blurriness include dry eye, Posterior capsule opacity, and residual refractive error (meaning your eyes still need more glasses to address the problem).
Posterior capsule opacity (PCO) is a common problem that can develop a few weeks, months, or (most commonly) years following cataract surgery and cause blurred vision. This condition develops when the membrane that houses your intraocular lens, known as the lens capsule, gets cloudy or wrinkled, obscuring your vision. PCO develops when new cells start to populate an already-existing membrane, much as how scar tissue forms.
A YAG laser capsulotomy is a fast and painless laser operation that can be used to cure this disease. In order to remove the cataract, your surgeon will use a laser to create a hole in the hazy capsule. The incisionless surgery takes only around 5 minutes. Click here to read about Can Toric Intraocular Lenses for Cataract Surgery Fix Astigmatism?
Eye Dryness
The majority of people who have cataract surgery report some degree of dry eye. When your surgeon makes the incisions to reach your lens, a tiny number of nerves on the surface of your eye will be severed. It is in part through these nerves that the eye receives the signal to start shedding tears. Until the nerves have healed, your eye may feel dry, leading to a reduction in tear production. This usually takes around three months. A preexisting condition of dry eye may worsen following surgery. Discomfort, sensitivity to light, and blurred vision are all potential side effects of dry eye.
Preservative-free artificial tears available over-the-counter (OTC) can alleviate minor dry eye symptoms. If over-the-counter tear drops aren’t helping, see an ophthalmologist who can recommend something stronger to get you through the discomfort.
Problems with glare, halos, and other distracting effects
After cataract surgery, dyphotopsia, or “unwanted visual pictures,” affects a significant percentage of patients. Positive dysphotopsia manifests as abnormal responses to light, such as glare, halos, and streaks. They are more common with multifocal lenses and tend to manifest at night or in low light. Between the first and second eye surgeries, these side effects may become more pronounced. Positive dysphotopsia can also be caused by residual refractive error; however, this condition can be corrected with a suitable glasses prescription. Sometimes PCO is to blame, and a YAG laser procedure is the only way to get rid of it.
If your ophthalmologist determines that none of these causes are to blame, yet the glare and halos remain, you may be given eye drops to use at night to alleviate the condition.
There are some patients who report seeing a crescent-shaped shadow or arc of light in their field of vision following surgery. Negative dysphotopsia, which affects around 15% of patients, describes this condition. No one knows for sure what triggers it, not even the doctors. Most cases of dysphotopsia improve without treatment within a few months.
After 3–4 months, your ophthalmologist will recommend therapy for dysphotopsia if it persists.
A feeling of nausea or disorientation
Nausea is a common side effect of intravenous (IV) anesthesia and is most commonly experienced following surgery. Nausea after surgery is common and may last for two days.
If you come home and immediately start drinking lots of water and eating, it should help.
Ocular hypertension, or increased eye pressure, can also trigger nausea and vomiting. A patient’s ocular pressure may briefly increase due to the use of special gels in surgery. It is possible for people with glaucoma to have abnormally high ocular pressure. The day following surgery, you should have an ophthalmologist check your eye pressure and treat you if necessary. You can also read about Clinical photography and our responsibilities by clicking https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4292101/
Drooping Eyelid
Ptosis, the medical term for drooping eyelids, is all too prevalent following medical procedures. People with puffy eyelids after surgery are more likely to experience this. The speculum, which the surgeon will use to hold your eyelids open throughout the operation, is likely to blame. The inflammation of the eye that occurs after surgery is another possible cause. Eyelid droop usually improves without treatment after six months.
The appearance of a red or bloodshot eye
It is usual to have a bloodshot or red eye following surgery. Subconjunctival hemorrhage, also known as subconjunctival inflammation, is often brought on by a ruptured blood vessel. The resulting red mark on the eye may appear frightening, but is normally harmless and goes away on its own. People who have undergone laser cataract surgery, which requires the use of a vacuum on the eye, are more likely to experience this. It might take up to three weeks for the blood to be reabsorbed by the body.
In cases when discomfort, light sensitivity, or a noticeable shift in vision accompanies red eyes, it’s important to get checked out by an eye doctor right away.
Floating object or suddenly flash
After cataract surgery, some patients report seeing floaters, which appear as blurry spots or lines. That’s the shadow of vitreous gel particles floating around within your eye. This inconsequential group usually just floats harmlessly out of the way.
But if your floaters suddenly multiply like someone sprayed spots, or if you see flashes of light like a camera going off, or if a shadow or curtain emerges in your side vision, you should visit an ophthalmologist. These symptoms indicate that you may be experiencing retinal detachment, a serious but uncommon side effect of cataract surgery in which the retina separates from the back of the eye.