Cataract

A cataract is a natural clouding of the natural human lens. It leads to a reduction in quality of vision with symptoms of blurred vision, glare, difficulty reading and altered colour perception.

It is a natural age-related change but may be brought on earlier by certain medications, medical conditions and injury. There are three main types of cataract:

• Nuclear – centre of the lens is affected which goes cloudy, yellow-brown in advanced cases
• Cortical – the outer layers of the lens turn white in a spoke-like fashion.
• Posterior subcapsular – the back edge of the lens develops a cloudy plaque. This may become visually significant very quickly.

In the early stages, symptoms can be minimised by good lighting and glasses. As symptoms progress, it is not possible to overcome the symptoms and cataract surgery in indicated. Healthy lifestyle choices (such as wearing UV blocking sunglasses, stop smoking, reduce / stop alcohol intake, optimise control of diabetes) can slow the onset of cataracts.