By Dr. Kelly Krespan
What to Expect on the Day of Cataract Surgery
The day beforehand, the surgery center will confirm your arrival time. We have you come in about 1 hour before your surgery to get you prepared. We will give you drops to dilate the pupil, the nurses will start an IV, and you will talk with the anesthesia team.
The anesthesia team will give you calming medicine in the IV, but you do not go all the way under general anesthesia. If you feel anxious, let us know and we can give you more medication so you can feel relaxed. Sometimes this medication makes you forget surgery, even if you were awake during it.
The surgery itself is quick, less than 15 minutes. When you leave the OR you will have a clear shield over your eye. It is clear and has holes in it, so you can see through it. The vision will be blurry for one to two days. As you use your eyedrops, the vision will clear.
Do cataracts ever come back?
Weeks to years after cataract surgery, a film can form behind the lens implant. It is called posterior capsular opacification, and it occurs in the minority of patients. A patient would notice the vision was initially clear, but slowly started to become blurry or have glare symptoms again, similar to when they had cataracts. If you and your ophthalmologist notice this film, the fix for it is straightforward. We can do a laser in the office to clear the film away. There are no cuts made on the outside of the eye, and you don’t feel the laser.
