REDDAM HOUSE PRIMARY SCHOOL - NADIA'S CATARACTS PAGE

WHAT ARE CATARACTS?

A cataract is a clouding of the eye lens that leads to a loss of sight. A person's lens is normally made up of protein that is easy to see through, like a clear, clean window.

Sometimes, as a person gets older, the protein in the lens sticks together. That is a cataract. Looking out through these clumpy proteins in the lens is like trying to see through a cloudy glass. Things are difficult to see and may look blurry or out of focus.

At first cataracts are small and you might not even notice a difference in the way they see. When cataracts grow bigger over time, a person finds it harder to read and do other normal tasks. For people with large cataracts, it is like trying to see through a waterfall. In fact, the word 'cataracts' means waterfall in Latin.

Cataracts almost always happen to people over 50. These are called age-related cataracts. Cataracts are not contagious. Kids are rarely born with cataracts, or develop them while they are babies. When kids are born with cataracts it is because they have inherited them or have an infection that involves the lens of the eye. No matter what the cause is, normally they can be treated.

TREATMENT - WHAT HAPPENS IN SURGERY?

During the cataract surgery, the blurry, cloudy lens is replaced with a new, plastic lens that can be seen through without difficulty. After the surgery people will immediately be able to see better, but they will have to do some special things to keep their eyes safe

Use special eye drops
Protect their eyes while sleeping

Harold Ridley

Charles Kelman

WHO DISCOVERED THE CURE FOR CATARACTS?

In the early times, strange concotions and eye drops were used to treat cataracts until physicians in ancient Babylon and India began surgical treatment. Their basic method is still used in some parts of Africa today. In the 18th Century, surgeons cut the eye to remove the entire cataract lens and capsule. The only way the patient could see after surgery was to wear thick, heavy cataract glasses. By the 20th Century, surgeons learned to remove only the cloudy lens and leave the empty capsule in the eye.

The British surgeon, Harold Ridley, designed a tiny lens that was successfully implanted in the eye. In 1968, American surgoen, Charles Kelman, invented a technology called ultrasound to remove cataracts.

Cataract surgery was dramatically improved when ultrasound was combined with plastic lens implant surgery. Today, after decades of improvement, cataract is considered one of the safest surgeries performed , with millions of successful operations done every year around the world.