The Evolution of and Advancements in Cataract Surgery
Cataract surgery is one of the oldest surgical procedures known to man, with the first documentation of the procedure occurring during the fifth century BC, but advancements in cataract surgery advancements, especially recently, have increased not only the efficiency of the procedure, but also the safety. These days, cataract surgery is used to treat the clouding of the eye lens and to do this, the lens of the eyes are removed and usually replaced with an artificial lens.
The first appearance of cataract surgery was a technique called “couching,” where the lens was displaced so that it laid away from the pupil and in the vitreous cavity in the back of the eye. While this procedure did enable the patient to see better, their vision was still blurred as corrective lenses were not yet available.
The first reported removal of a cataract from the eye occurred in 1748 in Paris, France. The surgery was made possible due to the advent of topical anesthesia, but it was limited to the most advanced cases as it required that the entire lens be removed in one piece, which was difficult unless the lens was extremely hard.
The most recent decades of cataract surgeries have seen the most improvements and cataract surgery has evolved from one ridden with a variety of things that could go wrong to surgeries considered extremely safe and common. Recent advancements in cataract surgery, including the introduction of phacoemulsification surgery which allows us to use smaller and smaller wounds to remove lens and advancements in lens replacement technologies, have really pushed the evolution of cataract surgery forward.
Most recently, the creation of aspheric lens technology has allowed us to not only correct focal length, but also aberrations in the eye that occur in the cornea naturally with aging. Doctors are also at the beginning stages of creating lenses that will limit the necessity for reading glasses after surgeries.
Overall, advancements in cataract surgery have come a very long way since the inception of the procedure. The evolution of cataract surgery has allowed us to improve surgery through incisions that are smaller and smaller and improve lens implants for better visual outcomes. Click here to learn more about advancements in cataract surgery.