Cataract

Cataract is a disease of the transparency of the biological lens inside the eye. It is one of the most common diseases in ophthalmology and the most common cause of blindness in the world. With this disease, the patient sees as if through turbid whitish water.

Causes of Cataract:

• age-related changes
• endocrine disorders, metabolic disorders (the risk group includes patients with diabetes mellitus)
• presence of other eye diseases (glaucoma, severe myopia, retinal detachment)
• severe infections
• unfavorable environmental conditions (mainly exposure, radiation, prolonged exposure to sunlight)
• taking and abusing certain drugs (especially corticosteroids, tricyclic antidepressants)
• eye injuries
• hereditary predisposition

Symptoms of Cataract:

• visual acuity worsens in the dark
• difficulties in focusing vision at close range for manual labor, reading and sewing
• color perception is weakened and the brightness of objects decreases
• images double and may be distorted
• halos around bright objects
• change in the color of the pupil (yellow, gray, white pupil)

Today, there is an optimal method of treating cataracts – surgical removal of the lens and its replacement with an artificial intraocular lens.

Congenital Cataract

Congenital cataracts differ from acquired cataracts in that most often they do not progress. This disease is quite difficult to notice without a special examination. At the same time, not diagnosed in time congenital cataract in children threatens with complete life-long blindness. In the first years of life, vision is formed, and if the lens is cloudy, then the eye gets used to “not perceiving” the image, and light does not stimulate the development of the retina. In this case, even after removing the lens, it will be impossible to restore vision. Ophthalmologists recommend removing the cloudy lens as early as possible after birth.