New-age eye care

Did you know that cataract is the most common cause of blindness in India? According to WHO statistics, there are more than 1.2 crore blind people in India, of which 80 percent are due to cataract. Caused majorly by advancing age, cataract is the clouding of the lens in the eye that affects the vision.

As we get older, the lens inside our eye gradually changes and becomes less transparent. A lens that has turned misty or cloudy is said to have cataract. Over time, a cataract can get worse, gradually making the vision drop; reading and driving
become progressively difficult as does threading a needle. The colours are not as brilliant and intense as before and the overall vision seems a bit misty.

Self-healing procedure

Surgery to enable you to see more clearly again is the only treatment for cataract - which is why getting cataract surgery done at the right time is extremely important. This surgery involves replacing the cloudy natural lens with a plastic or silicone or collamer lens (intra ocular lens). Studies show that nine out of ten people have to undergo a cataract surgery post 50 years.

An innovative breakthrough in technology, the bladeless catalys laser cataract system is the world’s most advanced laser system. The procedure is conducted through small laser-made incisions. This system can make all the cuts, openings in perfect shape, size and position using the femtosecond laser. The laser cuts just like an invisible sword on the micrometre. The opening of the capsule is done with micro millimetre perfection giving a perfectly centred and round safe rhexis and then it evaporates the cataract using the advanced laser pattern scanning technology. The procedures are automated and performed from a remote console, a few feet away from the surgical table.

The surgical area is visible in a 3-D magnified view on a monitor, which offers greater depth perception and detailed views than open surgery. From the remote console, the surgeon can precisely direct the laser into the eye at the operating table. This not only reduces the margin of error greatly, but also offers the surgeon more flexibility, control and manoeuvrability in using the surgical instruments than in a traditional surgery.

Another highlight of using this highly advanced technique for cataract surgery is that even the recovery is quicker compared to open surgery. The entire process is so simple that the patient can walk out of the operation theatre and resume his normal life - even take a
bath and travel, the very next day after surgery. Now, that’s something that was completely unheard of with traditional  cataract surgery!

(The author is surgical chief and
medical director, Mehta International Eye
Institute, Mumbai)