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Cataract Surgery - How Soon can PCO Develop?

Posted , 7 users are following.

m22031
m22031

I had cataract surgery on my left eye about 4 weeks ago, with a Symfony extended depth lens implant.   Ever since, and with no improvement so far my vision is blurry, more so at some distances than others but in general overall, there is reduced contrast, and I have what I would categorize as severe starburst / halos at night.  Night vision is very blurry.  Surgeon says my eye is healing well, lens is perfectly positioned.   Is it possible that I could have PCO, or is it too soon?

0 likes, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • at201
    at201 m22031

    Posted

    I am sorry to learn that you are having various issues after having cataract surgery and getting a Symfony lens.

    It is possible that you have a PCO, but your issues can have more than one reason. The only way to check for the PCO is for the surgeon or another eye professional to look in your eye for that.

    When is your next appointment with the surgeon?

    • m22031
      m22031 at201

      Posted

      Hello, my next appointment is in a few days.  I think it's unlikely it's PCO, it seems too soon, but I'm going to ask anyway.  I'm sure surgeons hate patients who google!  

  • freeman62151
    freeman62151 m22031

    Posted

    I had surgery on both eyes 3 months. they became blurry the second day after surgery.I was given a time frame to return to have YAG treatment whick didn't improve the cloudiness or blueness.Still see Halos at time time.I was told it should clear up in 3 months. so far I haven't seen any improvements in either eye.   

    • m22031
      m22031 freeman62151

      Posted

      I am sorry to hear this.  From reading these forums 'wait and it will get better' seems to be the standard advice.  And i'm sure for some it does get better, but that is no consolation if it's not the case for you.

  • Sue.An
    Sue.An m22031

    Posted

    m22031 - sorry to learn you’ve been having blurry vision since your surgery.  Although PCO can develop within a short period of time given you’ve not had clear vision at all since the surgery it seems unlikely that is the cause of your blurry vision.   Only way to be sure is to have the surgeon examine your eyes.  Square edge IOLs like Symfony are better at preventing PCO vs round edge IOLs.  It’s been a year since my surgeries and I don’t have signs of it yet.

    If you have any thoughts about exchanging the lens font proceed with a YAG treatment (for PCO) as that will likely prevent a lens exchange.

    There are numerous other possibilities for your blurry vision:  astigmatism, lens power calculation was off, if you are still using the drops - many experience blurry vision till the steroid drop use is over, etc.

    • m22031
      m22031 Sue.An

      Posted

      Thank you Sue.An, you are so knowledgeable!   I am on the last week of the drops, just twice a day now.  At the last visit, the surgeon said he thinks astigmatism is causing the blurriness, which I know is quite possible. 

      I understand the process for calculating the lens powers has a margin of error, but I would have thought astigmatism (mine is mild) would have been part of that calculation.  I guess my expectations were too high; I anticipated having close to perfect distance vision after the surgery.

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An m22031

      Posted

      You may have mentioned in a previous post but did you have a Symfony Toric Lens implanted?  That lens corrects for astigmatism but a regular lens does not.  If your astigmatism was mild you may just have received a regular Symfony (astigmatism for a toric lens is usually 1.0 or higher).

      It could very well be the steroid drops are the cause of blurriness so it could very well clear up after those are done.  Dry eye is another cause of blurriness.  You can obtain over the counter artificial tears which help a lot with that.  I use Systane but there are other brands on the market.  

      Once 6 weeks have past you should get a refraction test to see where your vision is at.  Those numbers will tell you how much astigmatism you have and if power is off (and by how much).

      Hang in there - yes it seems the standard reply is wait and it will be better but that is usually the case for most cataract patients first 6 weeks after surgery.  Although you read of people seeing well right after it takes a full 6 weeks for your eye to heal and IOL to settle.

    • Night-Hawk
      Night-Hawk m22031

      Posted

      The surgery incision can sometimes induce some residual astigmatism, it may reduce as your eye heals thats why its expected to wait 2-3 months after cataract surgery to get a new eyeglasses Rx for it to stabilize.  In my case my right eye ended up with about 1D residual astigmatism which gives me 20/25-20/30 uncorrected vision in that eye now.  Ideally its desired to end up with 0.5D or less astigmatism, but due to the variability of how each person's eye heals it can be more than that as was the case for me.  My surgeon did the get the power spot on, but its impossible to predict the residual astigmatism unfortunately.

    • m22031
      m22031 Sue.An

      Posted

      Thanks again Sue.An, I will just have to be more patient .. not easy for me!   I have the regular Symfony, not the toric.
    • m22031
      m22031 Night-Hawk

      Posted

      Thank you.. it is helpful to know that I am not alone!
  • pg128
    pg128 m22031

    Posted

    At 4 weeks your eye is still healing so give it time especially if you're still on drops (or recently stopped) as they impact vision in several ways, IOP, tear film etc.

    PCO is generally more common and occurs sooner in younger IOL patients rather than older. However, vitrectomy plus IOL patients are likely to get PCO sooner no matter what the age due to oxygen getting to the capsule.

    I had vitrectomy with IOL (and capsule cutting to avoid PCO) and choose a monofocal Tecnis IOL specifically to get the best contrast and lowest risk of glare, halos and starburst.  However one eye has terrible starbursts and the other more limited so I thinks its more eye and positioning related. Both have some glare and halos despite choosing monofocal.

  • SASunshine
    SASunshine m22031

    Posted

    I'm not sure what PCO is, but my left eye surgery left my left eye blurry.  The Surgeon had not gotten the lens lined up right (multifocal lens).  Had to go back in and reposition it.  Now, I'm dealing with right eye lens.  She even said the lens was somewhat off, but as long as I could see out of both eyes, it didn't matter!!!  Well, it matters to me.  I took myself over to a cataract surgery group that I should have gone to in the first place!  Yes, the lens was not inserted correctly - so, I guess I'm going to have to go back in and ger lens  turned in the right direction.  (She even have me a presc. for glasses!)  I think she didn't want to admist and for the staff to know that she had botched it two for two with me.  (The people above her will be told when the time is right) .... shear malpractice as far as I'm concerned!  Damn doctors...

    • freeman62151
      freeman62151 SASunshine

      Posted

      I had both lens replaced about 4 months ago and shortly after my eyes were blurry and still is. I had YAG performed on my right eye which didn't improve it at all.Decided not to have the left eye done and try to live with it.Also my left eye developed a black shadow in the corner of my eye,which the surgeon said would go away in 3 months.It's still there with know improvement,I kept asking him about the lens position ,which he claims is installed correct.I have given up on trying to tell him that lens is not position correctly according to information I have learnt since my lens implants.I went to see my regular eye specialists and he tells me I need glasses and my left I is quite blurry.So I ask him ,since it's blurry and cloudy will happen if I should have YAG performed on my left eye in the future.His responses was that I would need to have the left lens in my glasses upgraded.This was not the outcome I expected from having cataracts removed,it appeared to be a simple procedure,and I sure found out that was not the case.Some people have had good results which I assume they had good surgeons and the rest of us got the short end of the stick with surgeons who didn't know what they were doing and shouldn't be practicing this type of health care.

       

    • at201
      at201 SASunshine

      Posted

      If the lens in the right eye is toric, it could have rotated from its installed position causing blurriness (even if it was originally installed correctly). There is no reason to wonder if that is the case! An eye examination can easily determine that. And the surgeon should go back and rotate it back to the correct position without any charge.
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