All About Cataracts

August is Cataract Awareness Month, and to mark the occasion the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) recently issued the following tips to help consumers maintain healthy vision and make the right choices when cataracts develop:

When cataracts interfere with daily activities, it's time to consider surgery.

• Have an eye exam if you are over age 40. Advancing age is a risk factor for cataracts and other eye problems. Based on the findings of your exam, your eye doctor will advise you how often you should have your eyes examined in the future.

• Know the risk factors for cataracts. In addition to advancing age, risk factors for cataracts include smoking, extensive exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays, a history of a serious eye injury or inflammation, having diabetes, prolonged used of steroid medications and a family history of cataracts.

• Know how to reduce your cataract risk. A healthy diet, exercise, maintaining control of your blood sugar if you have diabetes, avoiding smoking and protecting your eyes from the sun’s harmful rays with UV-blocking sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat may help reduce your risk of cataracts.

• Evaluate how cataracts affect your life. If you have cataracts, the decision when to have cataract surgery should be based on your daily activities and how much interference your cataracts are causing. If you are noticing blurred vision, glare, halos, reduced color perception or other cataract-related problems when driving or performing other daily activities, it’s time to consider surgery.

The AAO offers additional information about cataracts and cataract surgery at its EyeSmart consumer website.

Eye safety is essential to protect your eye as it heals after cataract surgery. Typically, your cataract surgeon will give you a large pair of sunglasses after your cataract operation to reduce your sensitivity to light and shield your eye so you don’t inadvertently rub or bump your eye as it is healing.

Clifford W. Brooks III, MD, warns, however, that post-cataract surgery sunglasses are not true safety glasses and should not be worn in high risk situations that warrant a higher degree of eye protection. Dr. Brooks is an ophthalmologist at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

In this month’s issue of Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, Dr. Brooks and colleagues report the case of a male cataract surgery patient who ruptured his eyeball 3 months after surgery in a fall while playing tennis. The patient was wearing the protective sunglasses given to him after cataract surgery, and damage to the sunglasses during the fall is the suspected cause of the severe eye injury.

Dr. Brooks and his colleagues warned that the large sunglasses given to patients after cataract surgery are not designed for activities that pose a risk of significant impact or injury to the eye.

The authors also said patients should be counseled to use protective sports eyewear or other safety eyewear specifically designed and approved for the sport or activity they participate in.

SOURCE:  Globe rupture with post cataract-surgery safety sunglasses. Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. July 2010.

Drinking coffee throughout the day may not only keep you alert, it may reduce your risk of cataracts.

That’s the conclusion of researchers who presented the findings of a new study at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), held May 1-6 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore, Md.) presented data that suggest caffeine may inhibit oxidative changes in the human lens that can lead to cataract formation.

The investigators conducted their study on the lenses of mice and rats. In the first part of the study, lenses from euthanized mice were exposed to UV light in a medium with and without caffeine. In the second part, live rats were fed a diet with and without caffeine.

In both cases, caffeine was found to protect the lens from oxidative damage associated with cataract formation.

The researchers noted that this protective effect of caffeine has not been reported before and further studies are underway to better understand the mechanism and the significance of the findings to human eyes.

Ed. note: The findings of this study support other research that suggests antioxidants found in a healthy diet and in many eye vitamins and vision supplements may prevent or slow oxidative changes in the human lens that can lead to the development of cataracts.

About ARVO: The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology is the world’s largest eye and vision research organization with more than 12, 500 members from more than 80 countries. Membership is ARVO includes ophthalmologists, PhDs, optometrists and other vision researchers. For more about ARVO, visit www.arvo.org.

Crystalens HD, an accommodating intraocular lens (IOL), is producing excellent visual outcomes and a high degree of independence from eyeglasses after cataract surgery, according to three European eye surgeons.

The surgeons presented their findings at the 2010 winter meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, held in Budapest, Hungary, February 12-14.

Mark Tomalla, MD, of Duisburg, Germany, said he has implanted the Crystalens HD accommodating IOL in a series of 48 patients. At the time of his presentation, 17 of these patients had been been evaluated at a 6-month follow-up visit.

Six months after surgery:

• All patients could see clearly in the distance and at arm’s length without glasses.
• 71 percent reported they did not need reading glasses.
• The remaining 29 percent said they needed reading glasses only occasionally.

Angel Lopez-Castro, MD, reported similar results in his surgical implantation of the Crystalens HD after cataract removal in the eyes of 42 patients in Madrid, Spain. He said 80 percent of these patients achieved uncorrected reading vision of 20/25 or better, and all patients had distance vision of 20/20 or better without glasses.

Kristien Vanhoucke, MD, of Mol, Belgium, reported that 6 months after implanting the Crystalens HD in 26 eyes, 90 percent of these patients reported good vision at all distances and freedom from glasses after cataract surgery.

Crystalens HD is the fourth-generation accommodating IOL produced by Bausch & Lomb (Rochester, NY). The company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2008 to market Crystalens HD in the United States.

In January 2010, Bausch & Lomb announced the introduction of Crystalens AO, its latest accommodating IOL that is designed to reduce higher-order aberrations for even sharper vision after cataract removal.

All Crystalens accommodating IOLs are premium intraocular lenses and therefore increase cataract surgery cost. Ask your cataract surgeon for details.

SOURCE: Multiple European clinics report promising accommodating IOL visual outcomes. Ocular Surgery News. Published online February 15, 2010.