Cataract Surgery


Is your vision blurry, foggy or are your glasses no longer effective? Are you having difficulty reading street signs or writing on the TV or small print? Do you need more light to do everyday tasks? Does the sunlight or other lights seem overly bright or glaring? Do you have difficulty driving at night or see halos around lights? If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you most likely have cataracts.

What is a cataract? 

A cataract is the clouding of the natural lens of your eye. The lens focuses light and images on the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive layer of tissue lining the back of the eye. In a healthy eye, light passes through the clear lens to the retina sending signals to the brain. When the lens is clear the retina receives a sharp, focused image. A clouded lens due to a cataract produces a blurred, dull image. 

Eye injury, diseases, and medication can cause cataracts, but the most common cause is the result of our natural aging process. Cataract development is usually a very gradual process. Many people are unaware that they have cataracts because the change in their vision is gradual. Cataracts are very common, affecting roughly 60% of people over the age of 60.

Cataract surgery is one of the safest and most effective surgical procedures. Over 1.5 million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States each year. Dr. Schneider performs no-stitch clear cornea cataract surgery in about 10-15 minutes; however, you are at the surgery center for 2-3 hours. The surgery is performed with topical anesthesia with IV sedation. There are no shots given around the eye. The only needle stick you will have is for the IV.

A microscopic incision, 2.4 millimeters in size, is created in the cornea as a self-sealing valve so that no stitch is required. The cataract is gently removed from the eye with phacoemulsification which utilizes ultrasonic power, vibration and then aspiration. A soft foldable acrylic intraocular lens, IOL, is placed in the eye. Dr. Schneider will choose the appropriate IOL for your eye after a thorough pre-operative discussion of the options: Monofocal IOL, Multifocal IOL or an Astigmatism correcting Toric IOL.* The lens is safely inserted through the 2.4-millimeter corneal incision. This completes the procedure. Most patients are back to their normal routine the following day. Cataract surgery has a success rate of over 98%. Continuous innovations and techniques such as those employed by Dr. Schneider make the procedure safer than ever.