Service types: Cataracts | Cataract repair.

• Cataract is a very common, easily diagnosed and readily treatable eye condition that causes deterioration of vision due to clouding of the normally transparent, natural lens, inside the eye.

• Cataract is a normal age-related change that eventually affects everyone.

The natural lens normally focuses light inside the eye allowing sharp vision.

Over time, the lens becomes gradually hazy. A hazy lens is referred to as a ‘cataract’.

Light through a hazy lens is ‘scattered’ and the quality of the vision deteriorates, often as though one’s spectacles were becoming dirty.

• Common symptoms include foggy vision and glare or dazzle in the sun, from car headlights or from reflective street signs when driving at night, especially on rainy nights.
• Cataract sufferers may frequently try (unsuccessfully) to clean their spectacles to improve their vision.

Because vision loss is gradual, those with cataract often forget how clear their vision once was, and may think they are “just getting older”, not realising that normal vision can still, easily be restored with cataract surgery.

In the early stages, sunglasses can reduce cataract glare, but the only way to treat significant cataract to regain normal clear vision, is with cataract surgery.

Standard 'Eye Charts' typically have high contrast black letters on a white background and can actually be a very poor way of assessing the quality of vision in the presence of cataract. Vision tested on an 'eye chart' might still seem quite good and a person with quite marked cataract can often still read quite small print on an eye chart, yet still be disabled by poor quality vision, with poor contrast, glare with bright lights. Quality of life gradually suffers and affected people can become a danger on the road and be at increased risk of car crashes, falls and hip fractures .

Symptomatic patients are sometimes told that their cataract is “not yet bad enough to treat”, especially if they can still make out smallish print on an eye chart; however cataract is ‘bad enough to treat’ when symptoms begin to interfere with everyday activities such as driving, reading and whenever cataract affects quality of life.

• There is no advantage in waiting until cataract becomes advanced or ‘mature’.
• Cataracts never grow back: the new lens lasts a lifetime.
• Cataract Surgery is one of the most common and successful operations performed.

Most cataract surgery is performed on those over the age of 50. About 10 per cent are in their fifties, 20 per cent in their sixties, 35 per cent in their seventies and 35 per cent are over the age of 80.

Almost everyone over the age of 60 is affected by cataract to some degree. Cataract slowly worsens and virtually everyone over the age of 80 would see very much better if they had cataract surgery.

Specialist Cataract Surgeon Brett Rogers can safely remove the cloudy cataract using microsurgery and replace the cataract with a clear, foldable, intraocular lens (IOL) to restore normal vision.

Most of Dr Rogers’ cataract surgery is performed under local anaesthesia.

Surgery takes 20-25 minutes or less and the total time in hospital is only 2-3 hours.

Modern techniques and state-of-the-art equipment mean recovery is quick and you can be back to normal activities within days.

Cataract surgery can also eliminate short-sightedness (myopia) and long-sightedness (hypermetropia). Dr Rogers often corrects another very common spectacle problem called astigmatism (caused by an oval curvature of the surface of the eye) by using a ‘premium toric’ lens not normally used in public hospitals. This lens can give even better distance vision without spectacles than ordinary IOLs.

• Following such surgery, one can expect to have both excellent distance and reading vision, and to see well enough to safely drive without spectacles (even if one has worn strong spectacles since childhood).

While Public hospitals use a questionnaire and its ‘points’, to determine whether or not you can receive publicly funded cataract surgery. It is often, wrongly, assumed that a low ‘score’, means that the cataract is ‘not bad enough' to treat; however the public hospital ‘threshold score’ is determined by available funding and those missing out often ask Dr Rogers perform their cataract surgery at Southern Cross Hospital where ‘scoring’ and rationing does not apply and where surgery can be done within a week or two if required.

• Diagram showing effect of cataract (PDF, 2.5 MB)

Note: PDF downloads require the free Adobe Reader application to view.

Toric intraocular lenses

These are a "premium" intraocular lens' option, which in Dr Rogers uses in more than 50% of eyes undergoing cataract surgery.

Toric intraocular lenses look similar to ‘regular’ IOLs, however are designed with a curved (‘toric’) surface. They need to be be precisely aligned inside the eye at a specific angle, depending on the shape and amount of the eye's astigmatism.

Correction of astigmatism can allow much better quality vision and less dependence on glasses.

Dr Rogers has had more experience than most, having used astigmatism intraocular lenses for 16 years.

He was the first cataract surgeon in Southland/Otago to use “Swept Source OCT” Laser Biometry which measures both the  inside and the outside surfaces of the cornea to obtain the  ‘total power’ of the cornea for more precise IOL measurements and better visual outcomes.

This is particularly important when deciding on the patient's suitability for a toric IOL, when calculating which Toric IOL power to use and the precise alignment of this toric IOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D-GI331l18

Not uncommonly, at some time following routine cataract surgery, the normally-transparent thin membrane called the 'posterior capsule', which lies behind the intraocular lens, can thicken and become hazy.

This can cause symptoms that are similar to cataract symptoms, however the treatment of 'posterior  capsule haze' is much easier and involves simply clearing the membrane using "YAG"  LASER.

 YAG LASER CAPSULOTOMY CAN BE PERFORMED BOTH IN INVERCARGILL AND IN QUEENSTOWN

The procedure takes only a few minutes and gives an almost immediate return of vision to the state it was in following the original cataract surgery, even if that surgery was many years ago.

(The YAG Laser is also used to perform several other types of eye procedures.)

Service types: Cataracts | Cataract repair, Glaucoma (high eye pressure).

Both Cataract and Glaucoma are common with increasing age and many people over 60 have both.

Are those with glaucoma at higher risk of developing cataracts?

Those with glaucoma are not usually at higher risk of developing cataracts.

Both eye conditions are more common with age, which is why many who have one disease may develop the other.

How will cataract surgery affect the glaucoma?

Cataract surgery can cause a change in eye pressure. In general, it is not possible to predict whether the eye pressure will rise, fall or stay the same after cataract surgery; however, most people have slightly lower eye pressure following cataract surgery. This is often not permanent and the pressure may increase again later.

Increases in eye pressure immediately after the surgery are called ‘pressure spikes’ and sometimes occur in patients 1-2 days after cataract surgery. Usually these are short-lived and can be easily treated with medications.

Dr Rogers normally gives you tablets or eye drops to use for a day or two following surgery to prevent these pressure rises.

Is there a need to change glaucoma medication after cataract surgery?

After cataract surgery Dr Rogers might reassess the need for glaucoma drops.
In some instances, glaucoma drops can be decreased.

This is a "LASER" procedure that Dr Rogers performs at his private rooms, on patients who are at risk of developing a relatively uncommon type of glaucoma known as 'narrow-angle' or 'angle-closure' glaucoma.

Service types: Laser vision correction.

• Some people with refractive errors (especially longsightedness') choose to have a 'clear lens exchange', which is exactly the same operation as a cataract operation, just  done at an early stage and mainly to eliminate the need for wearing glasses (just as 'Lasik' does)

• Clear Lens Exchange is often a better alternative to Lasik in selected patients and is particularly suitable for longsighted (hypermetropic) patients with early cataract - or sometimes even with no cataract at all. (Once treated, such patients can never develop cataract in the future as the eye's natural lens has already been replaced, so cant develop cataract with age!)