Sight is one of the most important senses we have: it helps us capture a true picture of what is around us. For this reason, if you’ve ever found yourself squinting at street signs or wondering if everything around you has gotten a little blurrier, you may need to delve into the world of cataracts, a condition which results in a vision which blurs what is happening. come to us from abroad and a problem that affects 36% of the population over 50 in Spain.
A percentage that rises to almost 50% in people between 60 and 70 years old and 70% in people between 70 and 80 years old, according to data from the Spanish Society of Implant-Refractory Ocular Surgery (SECOIR). Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) also reveals that cataracts cause moderate to severe vision loss in more than 80% of cases, although they are relatively easy to treat and eliminate.
What is a waterfall
As explained by Dr. Verónica Gómez Calleja, specialist in the Ophthalmology Department of the Cornea, Anterior Pole and Glaucoma Section of the Infanta Elena University Hospital, “to fully understand what a cataract is, we must first understand what the lens is, » the transparent part of the eye that helps us focus light.
The lens is a transparent, elastic, lens-shaped structure and is responsible for deflecting light rays that enter the eye to help us see and focus on objects. For vision to be correct, the lens must be transparent since its mission is to act like a natural lens.
However, when it loses its transparency and becomes opaque, it is as if we are looking through foggy or dusty glass: objects appear blurry, diffuse and less colorful. “This is what we call cataract, a completely painless process but which can lead to loss of vision,” warns Gómez Calleja.
What symptoms does a person with cataracts have?
Cataracts may not be noticed at first because they tend to develop slowly. Therefore, at first, when they are mild, they usually do not have any symptoms. But, over time and as they become more pronounced, certain symptoms can appear and cause “frequent changes in prescription, or greater difficulty seeing at night, or even a reduction in the perception of contrasts, vision becoming blurry, cloudy. or duller or yellowish,” we specify. Gomez Calleja. Increased sensitivity to light, glare around bright lights, or even overlapping vision of different objects may also occur.
All of this causes the onset of difficulty reading or performing other daily activities such as driving or watching television, although vision loss is generally more pronounced in distance vision.
Who can get cataracts
According to Dr. Gómez Calleja “any person can develop cataracts and there are different risk factors that can predispose to their formation; age, diabetes, tobacco, alcohol, ionizing radiation and many more. The most common are age-related cataracts, called senile cataracts, and they usually begin to appear after age 50. »
This would explain why, in cases where cataracts are associated with age, their presence cannot be avoided. However, modifiable risk factors such as alcohol or tobacco consumption may be influenced.
Surgery, only option for cataract if it affects vision
Cataract treatment is based on the level of visual impairment it causes: if it affects little or no vision, no treatment may be necessary, although better control of visual symptoms and periodic check-ups may be necessary.
But when a cataract progresses to the point where it affects the ability to perform daily tasks, it is necessary to resort to surgery, which involves removing the lens of the eye and replacing it with an artificial lens since we are faced with a deficiency for which there is no pharmacological treatment that cures or prevents it.
“Currently there is no treatment that resolves cataracts without surgery,” explains Dr. Gómez Calleja, according to whom this is recommended in cases where patients’ vision and quality of life are affected. With the operation, we manage to “remove the clouded lens and replace it with an intraocular lens”, explains the Doctor, which allows us to arrive at a definitive solution.
In addition, cataract surgery, combined with an appropriate intraocular lens, often “corrects refractive errors such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism,” explains the Doctor.
To the question of whether we can do without glasses after surgery, the expert responds: “it depends, we need to do a preoperative study of the patient to select the intraocular lens that we are going to implant in each case . There are monofocal lenses for distance vision which require near glasses and lenses offering wider coverage such as multifocals or bifocals, so that the patient is independent of glasses but for which certain specific conditions must be met to guarantee a successful result.
