Please share PCO/YAG experience

hi saj, do you mean posterior vitreous detachment? PCO is posterior capsular opacification. have you had yag done for PCO?

Hi soksPlease can you tell me what it means when you can see your complete lens outlined in your PCO eye. I am having an operation on the 22nd November for very thick scar tissue which was caused after cataract surgery on 6th June. During the second week post op. I strained myself putting something away in the kitchen and could see a streak of blood right down the middle of the implanted lens with a blob at the bottom. It's gone now except for the lower bit with the blob. Think it was a burst blood vessel. Is this unusual? Do you think the lens has been affected.I can't get any help ringing the eye hospital in Birmingham UK. Beryl

beryl if there is blood in your iol eye please go to the emergency room immediately. if it is retina related it can only be repaired early.

thanks for the warning. They have examined it.Luckily it stopped but I will see what they say. Beryl

Am preparing right now for a visit to surgeon to talk about an upcoming YAG surgery. I had the Symfony lens in my right eye taken out on 7/15/19.I was aware something wasn't right the very next day, 7/16/19, because I was seeing very long vision distorting light streaks, not as many as the streaks from the starbursts I was seeing with the symfony but still very disappointing. Original surgeon said I may still have the streaks after the YAG. A second opinion from a surgeon not at the same clinic as my original surgeon said he could see the folds in my capsule that were causing the streaks and that he was 99% sure the streaks would go away.Deb03, you say you still had streaks after your YAG.The reason I am getting the YAG is to get rid of the streaks!!! Is there an explanation for your YAG not taking care of the light streaks? soks, I really can't say right now how my vision is going to be after the YAG but the need for it was recognized right after explantation surgery which left my vision with bad streaks, poor distance vision (even though the new lens inserted as supposed to be for distance), and "yellow" vision from the blue-light filtering lens that was put in.

thanks for sharing ann. why did you get the symfony explanted? good luck.

I had a very pronounced streak from about 11-5 off most every light from a fold in the capsule. After YAG, this streak went away. But unfortunately, I acquired new streaks, not nearly as pronounced and not off all lights, but definitely aggravating. I'd see anywhere from 2-8 typically. Dr thought maybe light was hitting the edge of the capsulotomy. He also thought pupil dilation may have played into it. He made the capsulotomy a little larger. For the most part they are gone. I see some but they aren't that bad. I can live with it. I also have more glare/halos around lights after the YAG. My other eye (LE) has PCO grade 2 and the halos are larger.

increased glare is also what John has posted. is this more pronounced halos like right after the surgery?

The Symfony in my RE and LE gave/gives me night time vision littered with large starbursts,spider-like webs,concentric circles. I shouldn't drive at night.

Ann are the visual disturbances with this newly exchanged Iol every bit as bad as Symfony's or worse?

No. I was sensitive to lights after cataract surgery. This is increased halos.

Hi, I don't think I responded to your question. I have been not posting on this blog but I am back again because I am facing a YAG.

The lens that replaced my Symphony was the AcrySofIQ.

When I had the Symphony lens, at night time the starbursts spread very far out onto the pavement of oncoming traffic so it was hard to determine where the car really was, or say, if there was something other than a car on the road. The Symphony also gave me concentric circles in the starburst.

I still have the starbursts with the AcrysofIQ, but they are smaller though still VERY annoying and a constant reminder of my experience.I do not have the concentric circles in the starburst with the AcrySofIQ.

The ONLY thing I miss about the Symphony is the bright whites.

The first thing I noticed with the AcrySofIQ was the yellowish white.

Turns out the AcrySofIQ lens the clinic routinely uses has blue light filtering which causes that off-white appearance.It really bothered me that I wasn't given the choice or told about this. When I had my other Symphony lens replaced (yes, with the same AcrySofIQ) the difference in the whites wasn't noticeable.

I firmly believe I was not given enough information before the start of all my surgeries , 5 to date, with a possible YAG.I think it called "...informed consent".

Hello Ann!

I've got the same with trifocal IOLs: large spiderwebs, concentric circles. Night driving is a torture. May I ask you how long your Symfony IOLs had been implanted before the explantation? Did they do both eyes during the same surgery? Were you fully conscious during the procedure? This issue is haunting me day and night. Seems that the surgery went well in your case. My IOLs had been implanted Oct. 2020 - seven months now.

Hi, I am so so sorry you are experiencing these side effects from the trifocal IOLs.

My surgeries really didn't go that well.

I had my right eye cataract surgery on 3/18/19.

I had the left eye cataract surgery on 4/1/19.

The right eye explant surgery was 7/15/19. After this explant surgery, immediately I had light streaks in my vision because the explant surgery had created folds in my eye capsule.I was so scared to have the YAG laser surgery recommended by the surgeon; the YAG was supposed to take care of the light streaks. I also was so scared to have the left multi-focal lens explanted.

I finally had the left eye explant done on 1/22/20.This explant surgery also left me with light streaks in the left eye!!!

I had the YAG laser procedure done in July 2020.The procedure was a disaster because, it being the time of COVID, the doc's eyeglasses fogged up and he moved around trying to clear the fog and I didn't know what to do and where to look. The light streaks in the right eye are still there but are smaller.The doc was paid a lot by the insurance company: still bothers me how that happens.

I was given some kind of drug that put me in a twilight-like sleep for the explants. I think each of my surgical experiences were different; could be because there were different anesthesiologists and doctors. I wasn't really awake all the time but sort of slipped in and out of awareness while the doc was tugging and cutting.

My left eye still has those light streaks as I have not done a YAG on that eye. The streaks get in the way of being able to see traffic at night. I am so distrustful of these doctors. I really think they cover for each other.

PLEASE let me know how you are doing. I think about those eye surgeries all the time, especially at night because I still have starbursts, though much smaller in size but still a bother and a reminder of all the physical and mental pain I had/have. Ann W.

Oh no! That's horrible! Thank you for telling me the truth about it! I already thought of the whole thing that it has the power to break my neck. My life is out of order since the surgery in October last year and who knows what's coming next.

Light streaks because of wrinkles in the capsular bag. Puh! Well our capsules had completely shrinked, fibrosis, adhesion ... It's not cataract surgery when everything is strong (zonula) with a large capsule. Did you choose a specialist for explantation? There are names here in the forum like Shatz, Safran and others? Was it the same doctor who did the cataract surgery? Did they tell you before the explantation you might have those light streaks? And what do they tell you now? I have to think hard about it. I guess they are proud of it because your capsules are still intact, no retinal tear and other issues. A "success". They told my I am a success with several glasses now, two at a time, night driving a danger and extremley stressful. I'm in my early fifties - still some way to go. I need to be able to drive at night and to work 10-12 hours each day with print, papers, laptop and figures. It's not worth the money and pain to exchange concentric rings for light streaks. We are only few but we are not alone in this world. A weak comfort, I know. Do you know people who had explantation without complications and happy with the outcome - I mean explantation more than 6-8 months after surgery? It's not a big thing if it's performed soon after the original surgery as we know now. My doctors told me to wait at least one year. But in my case there was nothing to wait for because both lenses are misaligned. They were fully aware of that but didn't tell me the truth.