Negative Dysphotopsia Unsuccessful Cataract surgery

I read this article months ago. I began having problems 3 mo after surgery. Eyesight cloudy, then bright glare left eye. Saw surgeon 5 mo after surgeries, lens is "perfect". By this time, couldn't read eye chart with left eye. His suggestion was neuro opthamologist. Going outside was unbearable due to bright artifacts from lens edge, reading using left eye no longer possible. Started negative dysphotopsias. So 3 retinal specialists, 2 neuro opthamologist psych, 5 opthamologist and hundreds of dollars later, itrace screen showed significant corneal and lens irregularities. ALL testing was normal except I can't read eye chart or drive safely on a bright day. My cataracts were only slightly visually a problem. I have 2 eyes grossly abnormal. As I look out at the world, I see my lenses, perfect rings that shimmer CONSTANTLY. At one year post IOL implant, I will have my left lens exchanged. My eyesight from left eye is impossible as I lead my life. Surgeon suspects Glistenings, which are common with acrylic lenses. I risk tearing of the lens capsule, etc, even loss of my eyesight. One DOES NOT neuro adapt to lenses with too high an index of refraction. Very thin lenses are highly reflective do to thinness and flatness, which acts like a mirror. Perfect surgical placement is a poor substitute for aberrant images and physical and visual discomfort.

I am one of these patients you speak of with dysphotopsia. I am an educated thirty- five year old audiologist with a doctorate degree. I have a huge family history of cataracts at a young age and I have had cataract surgery in June and July 2015. I continued to have problems after to first eye with light and honestly vision was a struggle but he told me this was all normal. He convinced me to proceed with surgery on the second eye but this did not seem to help with the halos and glare especially at night. I would drive but struggled as if the cataracts were still there. In April 2016 after a lot of complaining of glare, my doctor stating I need the Yag procedure in my left eye to clear up the cloudy film that he felt was causing the glare again. I felt like it made some sense maybe him was right and unfornately this is when I made a huge mistake trusting my doctor. I now cannot drive at night due to starburst and headaches to the brightness. I have seen four other eye specialists who all disagree and have suggest anxiety meds for my troubles. I don't feel like anyone has any answers and I have no more money to extend to them. I am disappointed in any decisions I have made which should have been a easy surgery as all say. The diagnosis I have give myself has been due to my research and not any of the five eye specialist I have seen. My question is if others come to you for this problem what do you suggest? Is there anything you could do for me?

Dirty little tricks

Wait and see

A deception that cataract surgeon present to patients with post cataract surgery problems is to tell them to wait a minimum of six months to a year to see if the problem will go away through patient accommodation.  Surgeons may also tell patients that research shows that their problem will likely disappear over time.

What the surgeons are actually telling patients is that they don't or can't fix the problem and that they hope that patients will ignore the problem over time.  

Another advantage that surgeons receive by using the wait and see approach is that their patients will likely not come back to them.  Cataract patients tend to be old.  If the surgeon is lucky, the patient will die from other old age complications before complaining about their continued post cataract surgery side effects.  Even if the patient doesn't die, they will likely have some other life threatening age-related health issue that will take priority over partially obscured eyesight.

 

I believe that thin, acrylic lenses with sharp edges were introduced to help prevent posterior chamber opacification or PCO after surgery. This has turned out to be less successful than expected. Many patients still getting YAG laser after a time. I refused YAG because I felt the lens was still a problem. Doctors hoping to make smaller incisions to help minimize infection seems a good idea, but needing a thin, foldable lens that fits into an injector creates its own issues. My acrylic lens has a higher index of refraction than the natural human lens....why? Sharp edges cause Straylight to be scattered, similar to light bounced of a chandelier faceted crystal, in my case making natural or overhead light reflect like a disco ball. I wonder if mid range silicone lens with curved edges would be a better idea? My surgeon uses two brands, one of which is the brand I have in. I have asked him to try the other brand. I actually do well at night, much less reflected light. I would definitely recommend that people wait on surgery as long as possible. 

I may have the same problem. I had my surgery last week. Yesterday, I told the doctor I can barely see through my left eye. I have a giant white cloud I look through and lights look like sparklers. The doctor told me to just adjust my TV since I had probably adjusted the color to suit my cataract. I wante to scream, but instead I covered my left eye and told him the color of everything in the room and then covered my right eye and told him about the washed out distorted colors and giant red starburst spots. He just said, "Oh" and said I might have had a stroke in my eye. I think I just had the wrong surgeon. 

I was scheduled for cataract surgery on April 4 (right eye) and April 18 (left eye). Two days after the surgery on my right eye, I woke up seeing the edge of the lens along the right side of my field of vision. My vision in that eye is greatly improved, but seeing the edge of the lens is extremely annoying. I immediately called my surgeon's office and spoke to a member of his surgical team. I was told that I WAS seeing the edge of the lens, that this was normal, that it takes a few days for the lens to settle into place and that it would clear up in a few days. It has now been two and a half weeks and no improvement. I canceled the surgery on my left eye until I see how things develop with my right eye. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday, but I expect him to insist again that it's normal and give it more time. I've also made an appointment with a different surgeon for a second opinion, but it will take at least three months to get in to see him because I am classified as a new patient. What advice can you give me going forward?