Cataracts

[Ags]

My partner went for single-focus lenses partly because of the light scatter issue, but also because the op is not an exact science - I don't think they can guarantee the lenses will be exactly right. In our case distance vision was nearly perfect in one eye, but still needed glasses in the other eye.

[reezeh]

On 18/05/2017 at 15:58, RayD said:

There is.  I looked in to this as I have them quite bad, but it is a very intrusive procedure, and only recommended in very extreme circumstances.  They basically replace the "gel" inside the eyeball, which is where the floaters live, and which I suspect is nothing like as easy as it sounds.

Pretty high-risk too. The damage caused by any complications after the procedure can be worse than even the worst cases of vitreous floaters. I know - I  have them really bad and the local hospital near me went from "no way will we do it" to over-enthusiasm to do the vitrectomy in the space of a year.  A little bit of quick research convinced me that I didn't want to be a guinea pig.

 

If you are wondering how bad mine are: any light to see anything, no matter how dim; my floaters show. Views through an eyepiece give distortion fields like refractive errors drifting across my fov and if the exit pupil is small, the view is like a dense snowball globe. I just try exercise more patience when looking. 

[Ags]

33 minutes ago, reezeh said:

like a dense snowball globe

Me too...

[theropod]

I’ve had both eyes done, and it’s the best. Mine were the fast progression type and in a matter of two months my night vision turned into a study in refraction spikes. I could not drive at night at all as one set of oncoming headlights turned into 20. Afterwards I can see as well as, if not much better, than I could at 18. I still need readers, but that’s muscle degeneration caused by being older than dirt. I’d do the surgeries again in a heartbeat!

[Relpet]

I had the fixed focal length lenses which enabled me to read without glasses for the first time in 50 years.  The procedure was carried out by surgeons through the National Health Service in England so was free of charge.  Had I wanted the variable focal lenses that would have been a considerable personal expense outside the NHS.  I was warned about your "starburst" effect even with the fixed lenses.  In my case I was told the replacement lens would be slightly smaller than the natural lens being removed and that it would take time, maybe a couple of years, for new tissue to grow to fully incorporate the edges of the new lens.  While that was happening I might find myself troubled by oncoming headlights as the light would hit the edges of the new lenses and refract across the field of vision.  I found this most troubling driving a right-hand drive car on the autoroutes at night in France where the driving position meant I was looking into the path of oncoming traffic more directly.  As promised, the problem disappeared after a few years.

Good luck, anyway.  It's well worth it.  The astonishing improvement in daylight vision was a revelation.  I had no idea how bad my vision had become until the fog cleared.