Cataract

The term cataract refers to the opacification of a natural lens of the eye, called crystalline. This lens is responsible, in young people, for the ability of the eye to focus on nearby images, called mechanism of accommodation, functioning as a self -focus or zoom.

In phacoemulsification of the cataract, after two small incisions (between 1 and 3 mm) are made, the anterior capsule of the crystalline lens is opened and the opacified content is ultrasonically fragmented and aspirated, leaving the capsular bag intact (transparent film surrounding the lens). At the end, an intraocular lens, or in other words, an artificial crystalline lens, made of bio-compatible material and inserted into the eyeball through one of the small apertures made at the beginning.

Currently, for the correction of corneal astigmatism we use aspherical and toric intraocular lens and, for selected cases, we use multifocal lens to correct for far and near vision without the use of glasses. In any case, we only the latest generation of hydrophobic acrylic lenses.

These surgeries are, in most cases, performed with topical anesthesia, through the use of drops only. With this method, the surgery is completely painless, only a slight sensation of pressure might be felt during few moments of the surgery.
The whole process usually takes 15 to 20 minutes, but in complicated cases or in which the cataract has evolved for a long time and its nucleus has become very hard, it can take a little more time.

This surgery is performed on an outpatient basis, that is, without hospitalization and the operated eye does not have stitches, nor does it need to be covered. Recovery is fairly rapid and usually fully achieved within 24 hours.

It is an innovative laser technology that allows performing fundamental steps of cataract surgery in a safer, atraumatic, and predictable way. In Femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery, it is possible to perform incisions, to do Capsulorhexis (opening of the anterior capsule of the crystalline lens), fracturing the nucleus in various fragments, and limbal relaxing incisions, for the correction of small astigmatisms.
Particularly as far as Capsulorhexis is concerned, this technology allows it to be performed with the exact desired diameter, perfect circularity and centering, with predictability that is impossible to achieve with manual execution.

IMO has the most advanced Femtosecond Laser platform for cataract surgery – Ziemer LDV Z8, which, through the use of low energy, compensated by high frequency, allowing for the release of inflammatory mediators and the consequent induction of intraoperative miosis (decrease of the pupillary diameter).