Cataract surgery and restore lenses fitted

Hi Flangies

This site has many many letters about cataract surgery and I am sure I have read ones that have similar symptoms to yours so read through them on the site.   Personally I have had both eyes done and although my sight is fine in both eyes I have a dreadful feeling in both of them, heavy, itchy and gritty with slight pain in my left eye that is worse when I close my eyes, but I am

having to live with that but if your eyes are cloudy this must be affecting your

sight, what are the GP, Surgeon or Optician saying about it, at least one of

them should be examining you and discoving why this is happening.

You will, I am sure, get other responses other than mine with more information and maybe be more helpful

Please let us know

Regards

Una

I believe there is a complication of cataract surgery called posterior capsule opacification (PCO) which can be treated using a laser.

As another poster suggested, there is a good chance the issue is PCO, which is due to opaque cells in your eye growing over the lens and causing it to be cloudy. It is treated easily with a few minute YAG laser treatment that gets rid of the tissue. It used to be that most people got PCO, but with newer lenses and techniques only a small minority get PCO. 

Usually if it happens though, it doesn't take 13 years to appear, so its  also possible you have some other eye problem unrelated to the lens or the cataract surgery. A doctor would need to examine you to be sure what the issue is.

The one concern to be aware of with YAG treatments is that it makes a lens exchange more complicated afterwards, so you should be sure there is no possibility you'd wish to get a lens exchange to a newer premium lens to give you better intermediate vision. After a YAG, extracting the old lens will usually leave the capsular bag unable to hold a replacement IOL and so a new IOL would need to go at least partially outside the capsular bag. The results are usually still great, but the issue is that most premium IOLs are only intended for use inside the capsular bag, so the replacement IOL is likely to need to be a monofocal IOL. 

Back when you had your surgery, the only Restor lenses were   high add bifocals that were expected to provide good vision for distance and near.. but to be not as good for intermediate distance like for computers. Now they have low add Restor lenses that give better intermediate, while not as much near (as well as other options like the Symfony that give better intermediate, or outside the US, e.g. in the UK, there are trifocal lenses that give better intermediate than a bifocal, but not quite as good as the Symfony,  while still having good near)