Ophthalmology >>>> Cataract - causes of development and methods of treatment

Cataract - causes of development and methods of treatment.

Inside our eye there is a transparent lens that focuses the light flux on the retina of the eye, making it possible to get a clear image of what we see. This lens is called the lens of the eye. Lens clouding is considered a disease and is called cataract.

Cataract develops gradually, changing a clear image to a cloudy one (it seems that you are looking at the world through a fogged glass).

The mechanism of lens opacity is still being studied, and the causes of cataracts are still unclear. But factors leading to the development of cataracts have been noticed:

mechanical trauma to the eye,
inflammatory processes (including vascular) and degenerative diseases of the retina,
burns (chemical, thermal, radiation),
toxic drug damage (as a side effect),
diseases associated with metabolic disorders (hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus and others),
the age of the person.

It was found that with the development of senile cataract , biochemical and physicochemical processes in the lens are disturbed: an imbalance of chemical substances in the lens ( microelements, proteins, lipids, amino acids, vitamins) develops , oxidative processes are disturbed, and enzymatic activity decreases . All this affects the optical properties of the lens.

The first signs of cataracts:

The appearance of spots or flies in front of the eye,
Feeling of double vision,
Impaired contrast of vision - the drawing loses clarity and has blurry outlines,
The colors in the image take on a yellowish tint.
Decreased visual acuity (depending on the type of cataract - when looking far or near).

Cataract treatment has two directions: conservative and surgical.

Conservative treatment of cataracts with drugs has the goal of inhibiting the development of pathological processes in the lens and cannot reverse the process of lens opacity itself (it will not restore the transparency of the lens). For these purposes, eye drops are used:

smirnov drops,
taufon,
sencatalin,
quinax,
vitafacol,
oftan-katakhrom,
vitayodurol,
vice-in.

In therapeutic treatment of cataract administered as vitamin therapy: vitamin C, vitamin B2, vitamin PP.

The most successful is the surgical treatment of cataracts. Its essence is to remove the damaged lens and insert an implant that replaces the functions of the natural lens. The operation to remove the clouded lens is called "cataract extraction".

Currently, the operation to remove the lens has several possibilities:

Extracapsular extraction, in which the nucleus of the lens is removed, some volume of the lens mass, but the posterior capsule of the lens is preserved. This operation has advantages (preserves the barrier between the vitreous humor and the anterior segment of the eye) and disadvantages (rather traumatic: a large incision in the cornea).
Intracapsular extraction, in which the lens is frozen with a cryozone and removed with a cryoextractor through the incision. The disadvantage of the operation is its high trauma - a large incision.
Ultrasonic phacoemulsification, in which an ultrasonic device is introduced into the anterior chamber of the eye through a 3mm incision and the lens is crushed to a liquid state, then the resulting emulsion is removed through a system of special drainages. Disadvantage of the operation - in the case of powerful ultrasonic vibrations, the posterior corneal epithelium and other ocular structures adjacent to the operation site are affected.
Laser phacoemulsification, in which the lens nucleus is fragmented using a laser with a wavelength of 1.44 microns. The advantages of this operation are that it allows the nucleus of different degrees of density to be cleaved in a short period of time, which in turn makes it possible not to injure the posterior corneal epithelium. Contraindication - the presence of a dense brown lens nucleus.

Surgical treatment of cataracts allows you to restore to a certain extent the quality of vision and make the life of a person suffering from cataracts full (including preserving his working capacity).