Current cataract technology Cataract surgery is usually fast, comfortable, and quite successful. Surgery is performed at the outpatient surgical center in Fashion Island, not a hospital. Anesthesia consists of minimal sedation and a local block for comfort. The surgery usually takes less than 15 minutes. You return home in less than two hours total and may resume normal activity almost immediately. All surgical work is done through a self-sealing (sutures are not used) opening into the eye that is about the size of a pen tip. Cataracts are never removed with lasers.

The cloudy lens is removed with an instrument that loosens the cloudy lens protein (emulsifies) and gently vacuums it out of the eye. The instrument is called a phacoemulsifier and is not a laser.

Phacoemulsifier vacuums the cloudy lens material from the eye.

Once the cloudy lens is removed, a lens implant is necessary to restore the focus of the eye. The lens implant is folded and inserted through the same tiny opening into the eye. Picture: Phacoemulsifier removing cloudy lens material.

The lens is placed through the pupil, behind the colored iris to replace the natural human lens. The lens is permanent and restores the focus of the eye. Picture: Lens implant positioned through pupil and behing the iris.