Flickering light in eye after Cataract surgery

My flickering occurs indoors, particularly in a fairly dim environment and there's a brighter light source, like a window, worst when its to my left. I do not experience it when in bright sunlight.

So yes, it seems that when the pupil is closed down, the light is not getting scattered, maybe, as you say, by the edges of the lens. My doc's theory, which has changed over time, is that light is getting around the lens/getting behind the lens and bouncing around. He's suggested a possible lens exchange, using a larger diameter conventional IOL to try to correct the problem, but says since he's never run into the problem before, he can give no assurance it will work.

Hopefully it would also get rid of the glare, rays and halos I get at night, which fits with the theory about the light getting around the lens, when the pupil is wide open.

My surgery was done with a Trulign (supposedly) adaptive and astigmatic correcting IOL and while my vision isn't great, (far or reading distance, good at computer distance), if I have a convention lens put it, the vision will probably be worse, uncorrected. So the question is whether its worth the risk of another surgery to try to maybe get rid of the annoying aberrations and the feeling I get a lot of the time, like it has a slightly fouled up contact lens in my eye .

What kind of IOLs do you have?

To further confuse the situation, I have a worsening secondary cataract behind the IOL which is affecting my vision, blurring bright lights at night etc. The secondary cataract supposedly can be corrected with the YAG procedure, but once that's done it rules/it becomes too risky to do the exchange.

Plus I still have the other eye with cataract that I have to decide what to do about.

Going in for a 2nd opinion from a new doc next Thurs, in hopes it will help me sort out this "can a worms", decide what to do and get on with life. I've found making the decision with so much uncertainty, very stressful.

Sorry if this more info than you or anyon needs or wants.

Im not sure but i think i have the same sentiments as you do. In the mornings my operated eye is ok except for the- what it feels like a misplaced contact lens on the outer corner of my eye. And its bad when its night or the lights are dim. You know what i tried? I tried closing my unoperated right eye and it wasn't bad. The halos around the corner of my left eye seems to dissappear everytime i try to use only my operated eye. My theory is that the cataract on my left eye is the one whose shadowing the haloes when i both used my eyes.

Did you try walking out in bright sunshine with sunglasses and when you took them off your eyes feels teary? But its not wet? Like the rim of your eyes got crystals?

Cataract on my right Eye***

I've been having the flickering issue for almost 8 months now, after getting Symfony lenses in both eyes. In my case it is mostly when I try to read close up, with computer distance being better but stil problematic, using computer reading glasses seems to cut down on the glare and help. I suspect there are a variety of issues which might be described as "flickering" which don't necessarily have the same cause, e.g. the post starting this thread seems less similar to mine since it stops after a short time and takes place outside in bright light.

I figured that in my case the flickering is tied into the small eye movements that our eyes constantly make that we aren't aware of, but are more pronounced when the eye is moving to scan to read. In my case I managed to get camera video of my eyes when it is occuring and you can see the iris jiggling (its not something people just looking at you would notice). Two eye surgeons confirmed from the video it is abnormal, it is called iridodonesis and it is sometimes a side effect of cataract surgery, particularly in people that were highly myopic beforehand as I was. An IOL i smaller than the natural lens it replaces, moreso in high myopes with larger natural lenses, and therefore the iris loses support.

Although it doesn't usually cause visual issues, I discovered a high volume surgeon who has seen it lead to the flickering light issue, mostly in those with light colored eyes (mine are blue). My iris seems to have striations of darker color mixed with the lighter and therefore the moving iris can change the stray light entering the eye through the iris (and perhaps reflecting off the lens), and the lighter colored eye lets in more light in general, and has more difference between the light and dark colored striations. It may be that having been comparatively young for cataract surgery, 52, that my retina is also still more sensitive to light changes than someone older. 

However it isn't clear if this is the issue or not. Another surgeon suggests that if the iris is moving as much as he saw in the video, that the lens capsule may be moving as well. A surgeon who had looked at my eye said the lens had healed well within the capsule and wasn't moving inside the capsule, however it may be that the zonules are loose and the capsule itself is moving. Psuedophacodonesis is what it is called (a natural lens jiggling abnormaly is phacodonesis).

When the eye tries to accommodate (which it does even with an IOL that won't accommodate) the zonules are looser and jiggling may be more of a problem, and  more visible to a surgeon. Unfortunately the usual eye drop they use to dilate your eye to look inside has the side effect of stopping accommodation, it is cycloplegic, which means the jiggling may not be noticeable to the doctor. I have read comments from surgeons saying they often can see phacodonesis in eyes that aren't dilated that isn't noticeable  when they are dilated with a cycloplegic, so I assume the same is true of pseudophakodonesis.  In my case the doctor looked at my lenses after my eyes  were dilated, which is likely true of most patients.  I haven't gone back to have it checked when they aren't (or when they are dilated using a less common drug that isn't cycloplegic). 

Unfortunately the recommendation I have is to wait to see if I neuroadapt to the issue regardless of the cause, which is why I hadn't gone back to have a doctor try to isolate whether the issue is the iris or the lens capsule moving, since it wouldn't make a difference, they still wouldn't do anything yet. (and there aren't good options in either case it sounds like).

I should note for anyone searching  for one of the words I used for more info, psuedophacodonesis, I sometimes see different spellings. Sometimes the c is a k, psuedophakodonesis, and rarely "denesis" instead of "donesis". I saw the same variations in spelling of phacodonesis. 

Im only 40 and i was detected early onset of cataract last april 2014(i still can read that time. And by march this year, doctor says the left eye is seriously blinded by cataract thats why i can oy see a shadow of my toe(s). No history of cataract in the family. Normal sugar. Normal cholesterol. No hypertension. Exceptionally healthy except my eyes 😬 so frustrating.

Yup, it is frustrating to have cataracts at a  younger than normal age, I was diagnosed at 49 with a problem cataract in one eye with no obvious cause (no trauma, no diabetes, no other eye health issues, etc), which went from 20/25 to 20/60 best corrected in a few months and 20/100 or so by the time I finally had surgery 2.5 years later (my other eye had good vision so I postponed surgery, but I got both eyes done when I had it since I traveled to Europe from the US to get the Symfony which wasn't approved here and the difference between the two eyes felt odd so I didn't want to have to go back if I couldn't adapt to it).  I've run into a few people younger than normal for cataracts with no obvious reasonn for it,  it happens unfortunately. The odds are your surgery will go fine, the problems being described on this page are extremely rare, most people have no issues at all. If you have questions in general about cataracts&surgery you might start a new thread rather than using this page. 

Oops, I didn't notice you had posted that you have had one eye done and have the flickering issue, I thought you were just commenting on also having a cataract younger than usual.  I'll note however that your surgery was recent, and the first 6-8 weeks or so the lens is still healing within the capsule. It is possible that the lens isn't firmly healed yet within the capsule and that its movement may be causing your issue, if so it may go away in the next few weeks. From the power of the lens it seems likely you weren't highly myopic (nearsighted) before this so its unlikely you have the iridodonesis issue I have. Zonule issues are also not common in younger folks like us when there are no signs of it beforehand to suggest any risk of it, but rare things happen. 

Dear Softwaredev,

I really enjoyed reading your precise analyses of the flickering problem which describes my situation with my left eye operated for cataract 3 months ago. I see the flickering the worst when I read close up, and when I watch the computer screen - like just now. Looking at something farther away is much less of a problem. My eye doctor told me to wait 3 months before judging the result, and that the implant would be sealed by tissue growing closer to it, so that it become stable, and so that there is less chance of scattering light. I will confront him sometime in August before I have my right eye done. I am 63 - and even at that age I feel it is a bit early to have cataract operations. Anyway - also have blue eyes - being Danish (living in Denmark). The difference between my two eyes is a little bit problematic since the new lens makes for a much brighter light input - that would be one reason I want the right eye have the same treatment. But I AM nervous about having two flickering eyes.

   My left eye have a fixed focus lens. My doctor deselected the correcting type and I deselected the multi-focus because of known problems with lower light transparency and concentric ring vision when observing a point source of light. My next lens will also be fixed focus. I know the type and make if anyone is interested.

   THANKS for your input softwaredev. :-)

 

I wrote a long time ago about flickering light in an eye soon after the operation; I had a little flickering window at several herz (can hardly find what I wrote so dont remember the estimated frequency!), usually in the morning. I thought this forum might like to know that, in my case, the flickering completely disappeared. So at least some flickering is temporary, like your opthalmologist advised. lykke til! Peter

Thanks for your thoughtful and valuable input. It's the most plausible explanation I've heard for the flickering. FYI I've noticed that if I stay totally motionless the flickering stops, so sounds like it fits with iridodonesis diagnosis.

Yesterday I had my appointment with a very experienced older cataract doc, who doesn't use multi-focal or adaptive IOLs. His reason they don't work as well as advertised  and cause a lot of problems. He told me he had recently seen a patient who had Crystalens IOLs in both eyes and was having problems similar to mine. He did surgery to place piggy back lenses in both of her eyes.

That's what he recommended for me. In his opinion it's less risky than lens replacement, especially since it's been 8 1/2 months since my surgery and he feels the IOL will have been now so firmly imbedded. This was news to me that waiting would make the lens replacement more difficult. Since the piggyback lens has a significantly is a larger diameter (6.3 mm vs 5.0 for the Trulign),  it seems to be in line with the idea that the small diameter of the Trulign was causing the glare halos etc.

Bottom line with no guarantees, of course, it sounded like he felt ding the piggy back  had a good chance of reducing the glare halos, rays etc, but was considerably less certain about it doing anything for the flickering. I'd still have to decide whether to use the opportunity of the piggy back to correct the distance vision or stay with the pretty good intermediate distance vision I have now.

Since it was my first visit with him and I wanted to hear what he had to say without preconceived ideas, I did not bring up your input about the cause of the flickering, but certainly will if/when I have another appointment with him.

I'm in the process thinking about his input, but definitely leaning toward going ahead, with what he suggests, just to try to get on with life. He's a busy guy, who's going on vacation, so nothing's going to happen for while.

Boy I'd sure like to talk to the patient that had the piggy back lenses put in to see how it turned out for her.

Apparently the flickering is your only symptom, no glare of halos?

Will post again when I further input and, of course, the results if I go ahead with the piggy back surgery.

re: "if I stay totally motionless the flickering stops"

Yup, if I force myself to focus on one spot on the screeen and not move my eyes, the flickering stops. That does seem to indicate that it relates to movement of *something*. 

re: "no glare of halos"

I have no issues with glare at all, I mentioned above that wearing computer reading glasses helps but I guess I didn't mean there was problematic glare that I was noticing, but more that since they are designed to cut down on glare I figured they were cutting down on stray light entering the iris a bit.

Overall my night vision is better than I can remember it ever being before cataracts. I do see halos from headlights and other point sources, but they aren't problematic since they are very light, transulcent, I see though/past them and don't really think about them. The only issue I have now is the flickering, though oddly the first few months when I tried to read hardcopy the text would actually jiggle up and down, with less flickering. Over time  the text stopped visibly jiggling but the flickering got worse. I assume that was a change in how my brain was interpreting its input. That   is part of why it seemed like it had to involve some sort of movement of something. It seems like its perhaps a few herz, I hadn't tried to pin down the frequency.  

You could try seeing if you can use a phone's video camera (or a standalone camera) to record your eyes when you are experiencing the flickering.  I did it while trying to read, and the iris movement as I said was very noticeable on the video. It took a few tries to figure out where to hold the phone (out of the way so I could read, but pointing to get the eye), perhaps someone else might assist.  I could see the iris movement on the phone, but it was easier to see it  uploading it to the computer and watching on a large screen. 

If you have other dysphotopsias I had read that a piggy pack lens may help. I suppose its possible if the flickering light is partly due to reflections that it could have an impact.  You might ask a doctor to look at the lens with your eye not dilated, or dilated with a non-cycloplegic, and see if when you move your eye if the lens bag jiggles. As I said I hadn't bothered doing that since the recommendation is to give more time to neuroadapt first.

 If it is loose zonules leading the capsular bag itself to jiggle, one surgeon suggested there is the chance that suturing the lens to the scleral wall could help, but I gather that isn't easy and any eye surgery has risks, the trauma could make things worse. It sounds like its best to give it more time to neuroadapt.  I hadn't encountered any suggestions for what to do if it is the iris.

I was considering the idea of finding the sort of colored contact lenses for halloween to see if they are dark enough to block out the iris (the normal colored contacts seem unlikely to do so) to see if that makes a difference just to diagnose the issue. I hadn't checked in detail to see how dark they are, and to be sure they cover enough of the iris but not the pupil. Unfortunately  even plano lenses here in the US need a prescription so I'd have to bug an eye doc to try this, and its mostly academic if there aren't good treatment options. 

I should have given this link to a page where an eye surgeon who'd had 20,000+ surgeries (the sort more likely to run into rare side effects) mentioned the link between iridodonesis and flickering:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Ophthalmology-Optometry-979/2012/1/flickering-vision-4.htm

 

I will try the video idea.

My first doc said he could not see that the IOL was moving/ jiggling.

The new doc who is recommending the piggy back operation can't do it right away and in the mean time is suggesting I try pupil restricting drops (again). The first doc suggested them and it didn't much, if any affect as far as I reacll on the flickering. This is a different strength and differentt brand, which I will start trying this evening.

Have you tried them?

BWT I was myopic, but not very (-2.75), still am, if less so (-1.25) with IOL and have dark brown eyes.

 

btw, I posted a link to a page with the doctor referring to flickering & iridodonesis but links send a post to the moderator, presumably for the weekend, it should be the first google hit if you search for "flickering iridodonesis". That page just refers to it being more prevalent in lighter colored eyes, but I imagine that even brown eyes let in some stray light, I guess the question would be whether there are darker striations, black perhaps, that would lead the iris jiggling to vary the stray light coming in. 

I haven't tried pupil restricting drops (or the opposite), since I hadn't really noticed a difference based on the bightness  of light (and the implied pupil size). The only thing that helps a bit at computer distance is computer reading glasses that I think cut down on stray light. At hardcopy distance trying to read is headache inducing even with those so I don't really try. Oddly my phone is a little better than hardcopy at the same distance, fortunately I'm only reading brief emails of web searches on it very occasionally.

As I mentioned, if they dilated the eye before the surgeon looked at it then there is a chance that would have reduced the movement because almost all dilation drops are cycloplegics which cut off accommodation, tightening the zonules and reducing any jiggling. I found a couple of clips on the net with surgeons referring to needing to look for phacodonesis, jiggling of the natural lens, either without dilation or with a non-cycloplegic dilation drop (they exist, but aren't as effective so they aren't used by default). I assume the same is therefore true of an artificial lens. 

It crossed my mind that since the flickering feels to me somewaht like a twitch, maybe acts like a twitch, wether some muscle relaxing or nerve relaxing drug (like possiblly botox?) might be effective in stopping it.

It turns out that eyelid twitching, myokmia, is one of the most common issues eye doctors hear. It sounds like it usually doesn't cause any sort of visual impact, but in some rare cases it can be enough to move the eyeball itself. Its usually the lower eyelid, and often people don't feel it but can spot it in the mirror if they look very closely (but its not something others would notice since its hard to spot).  

I had actually wondered if that might have been a factor since I finally noticed I had the issue soon after cataract surgery, though it cleared up in my case so even if it might have been a contributing factor at first, it isn't now. Fatigue is one of the causes of it, and I had travelled to Europe with an 8 hour time difference and lots of connecting flights leading to 30 hour travel times, so in hindsight it wasn't surprising that the issue had popped up again after surgery.

I'd noticed it once or twice in the past when I wasn't sleeping enough, before my cataract surgery, and hadn't had a visual impact from it, but I figured perhaps the artificial lens might be impacted differently, perhaps being looser. In my case when I did have it the twitching was pretty much constant, but it resolved within a few days, but some people can have it for a long time (it took weeks this time around, perhaps party due to stress from having eye issues). One of the treatments for it is a small shot of botox to paralyze the muscle, but I'd never needed to try that. It would only be applicable  if the issue were actually a muscle twitch. It was difficult to see, I had to get the lighting right in the mirror to notice it, and I couldn't seem to get a good camera video of it.

It turns out even the natural lens jiggles to a stop when the eye moves, there was a paper last year by Pablo Artal and Juan Tabernero on: "Lens Oscillations in the Human Eye. Implications for Post-Saccadic Suppression of Vision", which explains the brain actually ignores input from the eye for a fraction of a second whenever it moves to allow for movement and jiggle time. I figure that if there are loose zonules or something that the artificial lens is jiggling longer and the brain isn't tuning it out, if its the lens capsule jiggling and not the iris. 

Want to take the video of my iris you suggested. Don't have a smart phone only an "elderly" Canon digital camera. Not sure if Windows media player will be able to slow it down enough. I would like to see your video so I could compare it to mine, if I'm able to take it and, of course, would be more than willing to show you mine.

Not sure how we could do this, via emails maybe?

Noticed there already is a video showing iridodonesis on you tube. In case you haven't seen it, I found it by googling iridodonesis. Is that what yours looks like?

Sure seems to me, since you can actually can your iris jiggling, that would be the most likely cause of your flickering.

BTW thanks for the link. I'm not as hopeful that it will fade with time (as that doc), as I'm almost up to 9 months and haven't seem any change/reduction.

Hi Peter 1110

I think I may have seen a message from you some time after my last message was posted saying I`d find the lens details? I managed to start

a new thread just for Dysphotopsia and lens types but think its gone as I couldn`t see it again.

The other postings from the group have been sent to me but I lost track

of what had happened to you. I didn`t manage to find the details but will get them from my GP when I see her next.

I have become really fed up as I haven`t see the surgeon again who performed my procedure and last saw a temporary Ophthalmologist

as the department is short staffed. I had waited almost three hours

and the dept was closing;the temp doc was leaving that day.

Its interesting reading about the various drops members are given. I was given several lots of drops but not told what they were supposed to

do and had to cancel the last appoinment. The next appointment isn`t

until October.

The video sounds interesting, I`ll have a look at the messages again.Sorry, this has to be the most boring messageI have ever written.

Best Wishes

Alice

 

Had my 2nd appointment with the doc who suggested doing the piggyback operation.

In the meantime was able to get in touch with his patient on whom he did the piggyback operations. She's happy with the results, but UNFORTUNATELY she did not have any flickering or as far as I can tell, the other visual problems I have, she just wanted to see close up without glasses instead of in the distance. Kinda bothers me that he would suggested the piggyback for me, just because she had the same Trulign lens I have, even though her complaint was completely different.

After much discussion, he's now offering to try to do a lens replacement (with larger diameter conventional lens), but said he's nervous about being able to get the old lens out without doing damage (apparently he had problem trying to do so before) since it's been in my eye for 9 months now. So he wants to reserve the right to back out, if he runs into trouble and do the piggy back instead.

He also mentioned a Dr Olsen in Utah who's an expert on dysphotopsia and I looked him up and found his write up. http://tinyurl.com/pmghwje Reading that it's not at all encouraging that the operation, which ever way it turns out will likely do anything for the dysphotopsia and my vision could actually turn out worse.

So while I've more or less agreed to give a try (the surgery would be mid-Sep), just to do something, to try to get on with life, I remain very nervous about it being the correct decision, so nervous it's giving me really bad insomnia.

Anyone have any luck doing anything proactive that has reduced or elimianted flickering/dysphotopsia?

Hi Peter,

Are you living in Denmark - then we could communicate directly. I have flickering sight on the eye i had operated for cataract 3 months ago. I have come to the conclusion that I will have to live with it because it is a matter of adapting the brain to this rather than trying to change the lens. A very qualified doctor (who operated me) has convinced me that the changes reg. flickering is a brain-matter - and that it IS possible to work with in this way - i.e. disregard the flickering. He knows of no changes of lenses to other types that would give a better result. So I have decided to have my second eye done with the same doctor and the same type of lens (standard).

 

I live in Seattle in the States, but think we still couldn't use email to communicate directly. Thanks for your valuable input.

The fact that you have a standard lens and have the flickering makes me more doubtful that switching from the Trulign to the standard is likely to help. Do you have glare from the (same) side as the flickering? And nighttime rays and halos around bright objects? Or just the flickering?

I experienced something like a limiting dark half-moon in the extreme side away from my nose. This has receded to next to nothing over the past 3 months.  I do not see nighttime rays and halos around bright objects - just fleckering when reading (book or screen). Looking steadily at an object there is no flickering.

 

My flickering also stops if I remain motionless.

OK - same issue then. My approach will be to worry no more-  live my life, and forget about the flickering :-)

 

After one conflicting opinion after another about what to do, if anything about the flickering, I finally decided to have a piggyback lens inserted in my left eye. The doc felt it was less risky than a lens exchange.

After a one week scare following the surgery with the incision leaking eye fluid (maybe because this was the 3rd surgery on the same eye?) the doc was finally able to stop the leak with "bandage contact lens". The good news, the surgery seems mostly to have stop the flickering, The bad I now have worse glare from bright objects from both sides (going across my vision) particularly at night and in a dim environment and it did nothing for the rays and halos, which are as bad or worse than ever. And overall my vision seems worse, both in the distance, up close and even at computer distance. The doc says he has absolutely no explanation for the glare from the sides.

Now I'm 2nd guessing that I should have opted for a lens exchange. The doc now feels any kind of additional surgery (particularly the lens exchange, with the Trulign now so "imbedded" after almost a year) is too risky. He said the Trulign is "frozen" not moving at all. I still don't have a clue why it didn't move/accommodate/work anything like it was supposed to.

The secondary cataract is getting worse, but the doc wants to wait before doing the laser treatment to deal with that and of course, once that's done, from what I understand, it that really means no more possible surgeries on that (my left) eye.

Meanwhile the cataract in my right eye, that I've been putting off doing about, while all the confusion reigned about the left is getting noticeably worse.

All the upsetting conflicting input which cause so much indecision aggravated my chronic insomnia, which is now so bad, it's taken on a life of its own, taken a major toll on me.

Have to say the fateful decision to have the surgery last year, the decision I made about the lens, and what's happened since, as "minor" as the eye problem may seem compared to other bad things, diseases etc that could be happening to me at 73, at this point seems to have been a completely unexpected negative turning point in my life.

55 year old female. I had my right eye done 10-22-2015. IOL mono focal lens  AcrySof SN60WF from Alcon, which includes the Natural blue light blocking and UV filtered.  From the first morning I felt like extreme yellow light coming in my eye. The flickering when I move  my eye has never stopped. Had glasses made they dyed the lens blue then purple, and just because I did not want to look like a freek, they tinted the left lens too but not as dark. I went into a store today and could look at groceries on the shelfs without covering my eye or wearing a ball cap. Light flickers does not go away for me, but I notice when I'm driving my head is slightly turned to the right so the negative and positive ND is not popping up   With the black crescent off to the side and I had 20/20 vision. Now 20/30.  Everything is blurry from 12' away and gets worse the farther away. And I've slowly replaced light bulbs in my house with cool colored bulbs, and I have to keep the drapery pulled when sun is out, and I spend most of the time inside until evening when the sun is not so brite. And I've added tinting on my car windows It's been life style changing. But no one can figure out what to do, and I'm not letting anyone touch my left eye until it either goes away, or ???

 People with dark colored skin, now appears reds and oranges, light colors are all faded together or bleached out. We have snow on the ground and it is so bright, when I close my eyes at night, i see spots like someone had used flash bulbs and took my photo all day. 

what Dr told me ND is the most complained about thing after IOL implant that does not get recorded in the file, because most of the time it goes away and they hear it so much, he ignores it. Sad statement 

Hi softwaredev,

I know this post was a while ago but I thought I'd ask if your flickering effects had diminished over time?

I got surgery just under two weeks ago and have noticed a similar flickering to what you described. During my research period I came across several articles on cataract surgery problems for those patients who had previously been on the medication tamsoulosin which can cause a floppy iris effect. I did notify my surgeon but he didn't seem alarmed and never mentioned any problems during the surgery. I won't see my consultant till June.

Hi James!

They diagnosed me with Photopsia and first tried a surgery to move the lens forward...that did not change the flashing...after a month they decided to replace the Toric lens....the morning of surgery, my surgeon came in and said he had decided a different course, and he was going to piggyback a clear lens on TOP of the Toric lens to keep by better sight with the Toric....it worked! Hope that helps! Let me know how you're doing??

Julie

Hi `Henrik did your flickering ever deminish? I had RLE 7 weeks ago, and had something similar to your symptoms.

BR

peter

You are replying to my thread.....read above for my responses 

Hello Maye,

?I had cataract surgery on both eyes less than one month ago. And I experience halos and flickering around the corner of my right eye. When I close my left eye, the halos and flickering almost disappear completely (I would say at a percentage of 95%). So I suppose it has nothing to do with the cataract of your right eye. It's relieving to know that others face the same problems as I do , and that I am not alone in this. God bless you.

I did not experience what you are experiencing. What ever I did with the right eye had no effect on the flickering, which was on the left side of my field of vision of my left eye. Had a piggyback lens put in left eye, which largely did away with the flickering, but made the rays, halos, starbursts at night worse. If I had it to do over again I'd probably opted for a lens exchange. In view of what happened with my left eye, been putting off having surgery on the right eye... but one of these days I'll have to. Since it's only been a month for you, maybe there's a chance the flickering will still diminish on its own, but have to say mine started right way and didn't change over time. Best of luck to you,

Thanks Peter. The same here: The flickering started as soon as I opened my right eye, from the very first moment, so I don't think it will go away... I wish the best of luck to you too, and God willing, everything will go fine with your right eye?!!!

Thanks for your good wishes. If your flickering doesn't go away and it's your only annoying symptom, you might consider the piggyback lens, which seems to have some pretty good success in getting rid of the flickering, which it mostly did for me. Even if nobody seems to know why it works... maybe because they don't really know what causes the flickering? But if you do, make as sure as you can to have a good surgeon do it, as my piggyback got put in slightly off center, which the last doc I saw believes, is what made my other aberrations worse. Again best of luck.

Thank you very much. It's the most annoying by far, but not the only one. At night there are also some halos and occasionally starbursts when i look at bright objects, lights etc. I think i can put up with the latter, cause they are not very intense. I am not really sure for the full symptoms. For the time being i am so disappointed that i avoid going out except when it's absolutely necessary. I am 49 but i don't think i will try anything else. I am too scared from what i read here. And i wish i knew all these before surgery...

I did what you suggested and the arc at the side of the eye disappeared. However, I am not having surgery on my other eye if this is what I am faced with.

nice of you to totally explain . I dont think anyone can have too info when it comes to discussing our eyes & the outcomes we have all dealt with. Its good to be "in the know" especially when having surgery like this . I only wish, I would have found this site before my surgeries so I could have also asked these questions to my surgeon before I had my procedures done. I think now, surgeons feel like " if they dont ask, dont tell" which is a sad thing . Its a blessing that they can operate to give us better site, but I also believe they should be honest from the start & also explain things you may experience afterwards. I was a REAL worry wart beforehand, but I did have a wonderful experience with one of the doctor's staff, who took me aside before surgery, and took the time to answer all of my questions, I had come up with. If it wouldnt have been for her sensitiveness , I would probably still be sitting here with my cataracts in my eyes .

so sorry to hear this. Its so hard on us making these decision on our eyes. I think if I were you, I would definitely shop around for other drs or surgeons. I know it may not help your decision, but it is sincerely worth the try. Before my cataract surgery, I saw 3 surgeons & picked the one that I felt best suited me. Mind you, I am now having some issues with flashing lights on corner of one eye, but its better to talk to a dr, who gives you time, then one that would just treat you like a number in their office.

are you still around please? ive been hunting on line for weeks and now reading your posts i have exactly the same thing!

i have an appt tomorrow with the consultant who is supposed to be operating on my 2nd eye but i want answers to my flickering flashing sight and wobbling iris!

i recorded mine in slow motion and it makes me feel ill and very upset.

i do hope you ate still a member here i would live to speak to you

trudy

@softwaredev thank you so much for your posts, they are very useful and pretty much the only reference I have found online regarding this problem! I have experienced the same iridodonesis and flickering in light/bright rooms when I try to focus as a consequence of recent cataract surgery (I am now 5 weeks post-surgery) .

The first two healthcare professionals I saw post-op did not have an explanation for it but at my check up this week the doctor I saw gave the same explanation that you have documented when I showed him the video of it occurring- that it is likely caused by the IOL being smaller than the natural lens therefore the iris has lost support. It is strange that it seems intermittent in my case, or maybe it's just that it's only noticeable when it is bright and it is actually happening all the time? They dilate my eyes at each appointment, after which it does not occur therefore it is a good job I recorded a video prior to the appointment. They also suggested the same solution that you were given, that over time I will probably notice it less. I would be interested to know if you are you still experiencing issues with yours all these years later?

In my case, I am young (in my 30's), I am not myopic but also have fairly light irises (green) and I developed a posterior subcapsular cataract after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) following macular on retinal detachment (my only risk factor was lattice degeneration - no other known precipitating factors). I have had a monofocal IOL.

In addition to the flickering I am also experiencing halos and glare with lights at night but I think this may be more related to the posterior capsular opacification (PCO) that I have now started to develop 😦

It would be great to hear if any other people have or are experiencing similar issues. It would be interesting to know how common or rare this issue is!

Do you have any updates Trudy, are you still experiencing the same issue now?