Once your pupil has been dilated, the procedure is quick and painless, taking 2 – 3 minutes to complete.

You are advised not to drive for up to 24 hours after the treatment.

The laser procedure is considered very safe. Serious complications are possible but very rare. Your eye may be a little sore afterwards, but this should soon wear off.  Rarely, laser can cause detachment of the nerve layer at the back of the eye (retinal detachment) or swelling of the centre of the retina (macular oedema). The vast majority of people will see an excellent improvement in their vision without experiencing any problems.

Some patients need a short course of steroid drops after the laser treatment. In some cases Mr Sherafat may ask you to stay in the Department for a while after laser to check your eye pressure.  If it is high, he may give you extra drops to lower the pressure.

Most patients notice an improvement immediately or shortly after the treatment. It may, however, take a few days for your sight to fully recover. The vision should be restored to the level you had following your cataract surgery, unless you have another eye condition affecting your sight. You will still have to use your glasses as before.

You may notice a few ‘floaters’ shortly after the treatment. Floaters are harmless clumps of debris from the capsule that move around and may be seen as dots, circles, lines, clouds or cobwebs. Floaters usually go away or become less noticeable over a few days or weeks.  Some floaters persist but they do not usually affect the vision.

As the laser treatment does not require any cuts or stitches, you are normally able to return to your daily activities straight away. You will be given a follow up for a few weeks after your treatment.

Simply visit our contact page and use any of the methods on that page to contact us to get a consultation booked in at a time and location to suit you.

• Please bring you latest (current) distance and near spectacles
• Please bring any referral letter from your optician and your latest spectacle prescription, if available
• Please refrain from wearing your soft contact lenses for at least one week and hard contact lenses for two weeks prior to your consultation to ensure accurate lens implant power calculations are carried out on the same day. This is to avoid subsequent delays pending contact lens wear omission.
• Please do not drive to your appointment on the day, because your pupil will be dilated during the consultation and this can blur your vision.

Cataract surgery is a very safe procedure with generally very high patient satisfaction rate. Even so, no surgery is ever risk free. Complications which can adversely affect the visual outcome can occur during surgery or post-operatively.

Whilst the list of specific causes for these complications is long, the overall incidence is a small fraction of cases. The most serious complications during surgery are a tear of the thin capsule at the back of the lens (posterior capsule rupture) or spontaneous haemorrhage from the thin vessels in the deeper layer of the retina. The most serious post-operative complications are retinal detachment, which is more common in very short-sighted eyes or younger patients (under 50s), infection (1-2/1000). Overall there is a reported 1 in 1000 chance of loss of vision and 1 in 10000 chance of losing the eye.

No. The final visual outcome is not dependent on the time of intervention and therefore cataract surgery is not regarded as a time-critical intervention. The most important factor determining the need for surgery is whether you are troubled by your visual symptoms. If you are satisfied with your level of vision, then you do not need to have cataract surgery just because you have a cataract and you can choose to defer the option of surgery. Sometimes glasses can offer some improvement in vision during early cataracts, but this improvement may be limited and more short-lived as the cataract progresses.

There are however exceptions where cataract surgery is recommended even though you may not wish to have surgery or are not troubled by your vision. These are:

• If your best vision, even with glasses or contact lenses, does not meet the legal minimum requirements for driving and you wish to continue to drive.
• If the cataract prohibits an adequate view to enable monitoring or treating the back of the eye (retina), for example in diabetic patients who can develop changes in the back of the eye (diabetic retinopathy).

If the vision in the unoperated eye is poor, then it would be advised that you have some-one with you for the first 48 hours after surgery. You will be provided with eye drops which you usually use up to 4 times daily.

You can commence work as soon as you can provided this is not heavy duty manual work or risks exposure to trauma or dust.

Do not:

• Drive until your vision has cleared and you feel comfortable to do so
• Do any heavy lifting or vigorous activity for two weeks.
• Squeeze your eyes for 2 days after surgery
• Wear eye make-up for one week.
• Swim until your next review
• Wet your eyes for one week
• shower on the day of surgery. Do keep your eyes closed when showering for one week following surgery
• Travel by air for one week following surgery
• Can I wear glasses my old glasses after surgery?

Most of the visual recovery in the operated eye can take 24-72 hours. You can wear your glasses, especially if you need them for the unoperated eye, whilst awaiting for the vision for the operated eye to clear. Remember the prescription will be different and don’t judge your vision in the operated eye with your old glasses. Wearing the old prescription will not however cause any harm to the operated eye, but obviously not offer the clearest vision. Alternatively, you can remove the lens from the frame of the operated eye.

You can fly after one week, but it would be recommended that if you remain within reach of the practice for the first week and preferably two.

Simply visit our contact page and use any of the methods on that page to contact us to get a consultation booked in at a time and location to suit you.