McFarland Eye Centers

Cataract: A Dull, Colorless World

Cataracts are a normal part of the aging process. Over the course of your life, repeated exposure to sunlight causes a gradual clouding of your eye's natural lens. The clouding results in blurred vision and loss of color sensitivity - everything appears hazy and dull. By age 80, more than half of all Americans have either a cataract or have had cataract surgery.

The most common symptoms of a cataract are:

	Cloudy or blurry vision
	Colors seem faded
	Glare. Headlights, lamps or sunlight may appear too bright. A halo may appear around lights.
	Poor night vision
	Double vision or multiple images in one eye. (This symptom may clear as the cataract gets larger.)
	Frequent prescription changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses.

These symptoms also can be a sign of other eye problems. If you have any of these symptoms, call McFarland Eye Centers for a complete eye exam.

Studies show that after cancer and heart attacks, Americans fear blindness more than any health problem. Almost 13 million Americans age 40 and older have cataracts, making this the most common eye condition in the United States. Although one in seven people currently have a cataract, this is one of the most curable causes of vision loss.

Cataract procedures are the most frequently performed surgery in the United States, with the vast majority of patients regaining useful vision. Cataracts are the clouding of the eye’s natural lens, like a window which is “fogged” due to steam or humidity. Cataracts are not a growth or a “film” over the eye. When the natural lens becomes cloudy with cataracts, light rays cannot pass through it easily and vision then becomes blurry.

New surgical techniques have made cataract surgery one of the safest and most successful surgical procedures a person can have.

“What I like most about doing cataract surgery is that we are able to improve the quality of life of our patients and help them maintain independence as they grow older,” says Dr. Mike S. McFarland, an ophthalmologist practicing in three locations, Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and Little Rock. “Everyone knows that seniors are staying active for much longer than in the past. I commonly see patients in their 70’s and 80’s who still play golf, garden, take care of their own homes, and enjoy a variety of activities.”

Cataracts form slowly and with no pain. Some grow very slowly and have a minimal affect on vision. But others become very thick and begin to interfere with routine daily activities such as reading and driving.

“Sometimes a patient tells me that they’ve gotten new glasses, but still can’t see well, or are having trouble reading the Bible or their newspaper,” says Dr. McFarland. “Almost every time I hear these symptoms the patient does, in fact, have cataracts.” Some common indicators of cataracts include:

	A gradual blurring of vision (with no pain)
	Difficulty reading small print
	Trouble driving at night
	The fading or yellowing of colors
	Sensitivity to bright lights

There are no medications, eye drops, or glasses which will make a cataract resolve on its own, nor can a laser be used to remove cataracts. But cataract surgery today is usually done as a brief outpatient procedure under local anesthesia. The cloudy natural lens is replaced with a clear, artificial lens which requires no care and becomes a permanent part of your eye.

Traditional lens implants are designed to give clear vision at one point of focus, usually distance vision. With these lenses, most patients should expect to wear glasses to get their best near (or "up close") vision after cataract surgery. However, today new technology has created lens implants that provide more than one point of focus and allow most patients to see well at distance, mid-range and for near vision after surgery! These new lenses are called Multi-Focal lenses, and Dr. Mike McFarland is one of the first cataract surgeons in Arkansas to offer this exciting lens technology to his patients. Dr. McFarland highly recommends the ReSTOR lens to patients who desire to be free of glasses or contact lenses following cataract surgery. To learn more about the ReSTOR multi-focal lens, please visit ReSTOR Lens at AcrySofReSTOR.com

Some patients may have astigmatism in addition to their cataracts, which can cause the vision to be distorted or blurry. The standard lens implant does not correct astigmatism. However, there is a new advanced lens that replaces the cloudy cataract, and is also designed to correct astigmatism! This high technology implant is called a TORIC lens.

“My patients are released to go home within an hour after surgery. With my no-stitch cataract technique, there are no sutures to irritate the eye, and no patch is necessary. Our patients can resume all normal activity, including driving and lifting, the day after surgery,” says Dr. McFarland. “To patients who’ve had cataracts a long time, the vision is so much better that it almost seems like a miracle.”

Although cataracts usually develop as a normal part of the aging process, they can also be caused by eye injuries, diabetes, medications such as steroids, or frequent exposure to UV-A and UV-B rays.

According to Dr. McFarland, “No-Stitch cataract surgery is a great procedure, but it’s still surgery. Many patients I see are not really affected by their cataracts, so I advise them to wait to have surgery until they really need it. It’s totally the patient’s choice as to when their cataracts should be removed.”