Cataract surgery has long been the safest of the commonly performed major surgeries. A new study shows that now cataract surgery is even safer than ever before. Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found that patients undergoing cataract surgery in the mid-2000s were 21 percent less likely to have a serious complication than those who had surgery in the mid-1990s. The researchers suspect the credit should largely go to technical advances in how cataract surgery is done.
These days, cataract removal is usually done via a technique called "phacoemulsification." The surgeon makes a small incision in the cornea and then inserts a tiny probe that uses ultrasonic vibrations to liquefy the cataract for removal through an incision that is small enough to not require a suture.
Surgeons at Olympia Eye Clinic have been removing cataracts with small incision phacoemulsification since the 1980s, and have utilized their mastery of safe, small-incision cataract surgery to restore vision without complications to thousands of patients. Come talk to us today about how the newest lens implants are freeing so many cataract patients from their dependency on eyeglasses.
