If your vision has turned cloudy, blurry or weak, or things don’t seem as clear or as bright as they used to, it’s very likely you have developed a cataract in one eye or in both.

Many people describe their vision with cataracts as looking through the dirty window of a car. Cataracts affect your everyday activities. An ophthalmologist can determine, through a simple eye exam, if you have cataracts and if this is the cause of your loss of vision.

Cataracts are one of the most common causes of loss of vision and can be successfully treated by a surgical procedure where an intraocular lens replaces the natural lens with cataract.

Age, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and UV light are top causes of cataracts.

With phacoemulsification, the doctor makes a small incision in the eye and inserts a medical device which uses high frequency ultrasound to remove the cataract without affecting the surrounding tissue. Afterwards, the doctor inserts a high quality plastic intraocular lens which replaces the natural one. The new lens becomes a permanent part of the eye and is designed to last for the rest of the patient’s life. The recovery period is short.

With this technique, the surgeon extracts the cataract manually through a small incision (though somewhat larger than the Phaco one). Compared to other manual surgeries, SICS has the advantage of a self-sealing sutureless wound. The recovery period is a little longer than with the Phaco technique, but the results are very similar. Investigations have shown comparable outcomes and complication rates between patients undergoing Phaco and SICS.