Cataract Surgery in New York City

What Are Cataracts?

When your eyes are healthy, the lens is clear and flexible, which allows light to pass through. The lens changes its shape to focus light onto the retina in the back of your eyeball. The lens thickens to focus on nearby objects and thins to focus on distant objects. When the focus is imperfect one way or the other, it’s known as a refractive error or astigmatism.

Cataracts cause the lens of your eye to become clouded. Cataracts form when proteins and fibers break down over time and linger in the lens. The result is a hazy lens through which it’s difficult to see. This eye condition can develop from:

• Advancing age, the most common cause
• An eye injury
• Years of smoking
• Diabetes
• Exposure to excessive light
• Alcohol abuse
• Obesity
• High blood pressure

Cataracts come with symptoms that diminish your quality of life, including blurred vision, sensitivity to light, seeing halos, double vision, and a continuing need to change prescriptions. Expert retina specialists and ophthalmologists use state-of-the-art medical technology, including laser cataract surgery, to successfully address eye diseases, injuries, and other debilitating conditions.

What Is Cataract Surgery?

Cataract surgery is a procedure to replace a diseased eye lens with a new, likely artificial one. Cataract eye surgery is an outpatient procedure that your eye surgeon or ophthalmologist performs in a surgical suite. The procedure isn’t painful and improves your eyesight. If you need cataract surgery on both eyes, your eye surgery doctor does only one at a time. The four types of cataract surgery include:

• Phacoemulsification. This is a common technique for cataract removal. Your eye specialist emulsifies the eye’s internal lens with an ultrasonic handpiece. The doctor then uses suction to remove the lens from your eye. After removing the lens, your cataract surgeon flushes the front chamber of your eye with saline before inserting the new lens.
• Extracapsular cataract surgery. This is a cataract surgery procedure during which your ophthalmologist makes a large incision in the cornea and removes the cornea in one piece. The lens capsule remains in place and supports the artificial lens that’s put in place.
• Intracapsular cataract surgery. Your eye doctor performs this type of cataract eye surgery by making a large incision to remove the cloudy lens together with the lens capsule. To keep the transplanted intraocular lens in place, the surgeon sutures it to the sclera or the iris.
• Laser cataract surgery. Laser surgeries improve the precision, safety and effectiveness in eye procedures. Your ophthalmologist uses femtosecond laser technology to make a cornea incision, remove the anterior capsule and break up the cataract with an ultrasonic device.

Based on our own experience with cataract treatment, your eye doctor at VRMNY will examine your eyesight to determine the most effective procedure for you.

Who’s a Good Candidate for Cataract Surgery?

Cataract surgery restores your clear vision. But your ophthalmologist has to determine if cataract eye surgery is right for you. You may be good candidate for cataract removal surgery if:

• You suffer from double vision in one eye.
• You see halos around bright lights.
• You have blurred or distorted vision.
• You struggle to see at night.
• You experience light sensitivity.
• You’re over 40 and have poor vision.
• You’re in good health otherwise.
• You’ve been informed about the procedure and have realistic expectations.

If you’ve noticed these symptoms, consult the VRMNY eye specialists at their offices in Manhattan, Westchester or Brooklyn. These eye surgery doctors are well respected researchers and genuinely professional cataract surgeons in NYC. When you seek treatment, they take extraordinary care of you to protect or restore your vision.

What’s the Procedure for Cataract Surgery?

Before your cataract eye surgery, your ophthalmologist explains the diagnosis and treatment options, including which type of surgery to perform. While your surgery is specific to you, the main steps in the procedure generally include:

• Preparation. At the doctor’s office on the day of your procedure, your eye specialist measures the size and shape of your eye to determine the best artificial replacement lens. Then your doctor numbs your eye to prevent any discomfort. Cataract removal surgery is painless.
• Cataract removal. Depending on the type of surgery, the doctor makes small incisions in front of your eye to access the lens. Using the access pathway, your doctor emulsifies the lens and then removes it. The next step involves removing the lens and the lens capsule. If the capsule is in place, the custom eye lens is set into position without any sutures. The most common type of cataract surgery doesn’t need sutures.
• To enhance the healing procedure, your doctor places a protective patch over the eye. Your eye surgery doctor monitors you for about an hour before releasing you to go home. Follow the post-operative care guidelines, which include protecting the eye and using eye drops to avoid infection.

Cataract Surgery in NYC with VRMNY

If you’re looking for cataract surgeons in NYC or think you may have a cataract, you’ve come to the right place. Not only have Dr. Yannuzzi and his colleagues made numerous innovative and lasting contributions to imaging, drug development, and therapeutic modalities, but they also have a special interest in the medical and laser treatment of glaucoma, including iridotomies and YAG capsulotomies. As internationally renowned experts on vitreous anatomy and vitreoretinal interface disorders, retina doctors at Vitreous Retina Macula Consultants of New York completed hundreds of cataract surgery treatments, including complex laser cataract surgery.

Once you schedule a cataract evaluation, VRMNY vitreoretinal surgeons will discuss all your options and suggest the best way of getting back your normal vision and quality of life. They also strive to provide you with the best possible care and educate you about every step of the procedure, from the initial consultation to post-op care, which is a testimony of professionalism and attention to detail.

VRMNY retinal surgeons are among the pioneers in using modern laser technology for refractive and cataract surgery, so you can rest certain that your eyesight is in the hands of some most skilled cataract surgeons in NYC.

Cataract surgery has advanced significantly in the recent decade, reducing both the procedure and recovery times. VRMNY employs internationally-renowned board-certified ophthalmologists with a successful track record performing cataract surgeries and extensive experience with both surgical and laser vision correction techniques. Contact the largest retina center in Manhattan, NY, Brooklyn, NY, and Westchester, NY, to discover firsthand why so many patients consider us the best cataract eye surgery doctors and learn more about how the leading retina specialists can help you get clear sight back better than ever.