CATARACT: looking through the “film”

A third of all visual impairments in the world are due to cataracts – the crystalline lens of the eye becomes cloudy, and a person sees the world through a veil. A cataract leads first to a decrease in vision, and then to its complete loss.

If earlier cataract was considered a disease of the elderly, now it has become much younger – the disease can also manifest itself in forty-year-olds. The disease can occur after inflammation or injury to the eye, be a consequence of a metabolic disorder (for example, diabetes mellitus), etc. But if all these factors are absent, then most often such a disease is diagnosed in people after 50 years. Its first signs are as follows: visual acuity decreases, intolerance to bright light appears and a feeling of a film on the eyes – objects are not seen clearly, letters blur when reading and become as if double. If a cataract begins to develop on the periphery of the crystalline lens, a person may not feel any changes for a long time, and meanwhile the cataract will continue its destructive work. Cataracts are dangerous because, if left untreated, complete blindness occurs.

Unfortunately, there are two myths about cataracts that are still circulating among the people. The first is that it can be cured with medicines or folk methods. This is not true: there are no drugs that can cure this disease. The only method of treatment is surgery. To restore vision, the clouded crystalline lens must be removed and replaced with an artificial intraocular lens. And the second myth is that you need to wait for the cataract to mature, and only then remove it. Such a misconception often occurs even among doctors of district clinics. Indeed, before, when there was no modern equipment, it was easier for the surgeon to remove a mature cataract: the classic operation involved making a large incision in half of the eye, through which the cloudy crystalline lens was removed in its entirety. Now, in all civilized countries of the world, the question of the operation is raised already with a decrease in visual acuity to 30-50% and it is performed by a new, modern method. Currently, surgical removal of cataract by ultrasonic phacoemulsification with IOL implantation is one of the safest and most effective operations in medicine. Almost 95% of cataract cases in Europe, USA and Russia are removed using this technique.

The essence of phacoemulsification is that with the help of ultrasound, the clouded crystalline lens is crushed, turning into an emulsion, which is removed from the eye through a special probe. In its place, a soft artificial crystalline lens is implanted – a flexible, rolled into a “tube” intraocular lens with shape memory. It unfolds itself inside the eye and is securely fixed. All manipulations during such an operation are carried out through a micro-incision 2 mm in size, which is subsequently self-sealing and does not require suturing. An artificial crystalline lens is calculated for each patient individually using a special computer program. In this case, simultaneous correction of myopia and hyperopia is possible. A lens made from materials that are biocompatible with the tissues of the eye will last a lifetime and will not need to be replaced. The safety of phacoemulsification is so great that it is performed on an outpatient basis. On the same day, you will be able to return home and lead a normal life without significant restrictions on visual and physical activity. The effectiveness of this technique is confirmed by the fact that the patient’s vision after implantation of an artificial crystalline lens begins to recover already on the operating table. The success of the operation is directly related to the experience of the surgeon and the level of equipment: only expensive high-tech equipment in the hands of an experienced surgeon gives good results. And now you need to go abroad to receive medical care of this level: in Kyrgyzstan there is an eye clinic where methods of diagnosing and restoring vision in a few minutes, similar to science fiction about the distant future, are an everyday reality, usually a matter of course. There is an eye clinic in Kyrgyzstan, equal in technical equipment to world clinics – this is the “Ophthalmological Laser Center”! All operating and diagnostic equipment in it is from the world leader and the “freshest”, that is, the latest generation of ultrasonic phacoemulsifiers CENTURION® Vision System (Alcon, USA), operating Ophthalmological  microscopes LuxOR™ LX3 (USA), diagnostic lasers Oculyzer II and Topolyzer VARIO (WaveLight AG, Germany), as well as surgical lasers Topo-LASIK-SBK (Contoura™ Vision).

Even not all ophthalmological clinics in Turkey and India, which are favorite destinations for medical tourism for Kyrgyzstanis, have equipment of this level. Meanwhile, the cost of treatment in these countries is higher. Such equipment is used in leading clinics in Western Europe and the USA, and in our country the only clinic that has them is the Ophthalmological Laser Center.
The “Ophthalmological Laser Center” has no analogues in Kyrgyzstan in terms of the professional level of ophthalmological surgeons: world-famous doctors, candidates of medical sciences, members of the European Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), Kim Vladimir Ukhenovich and Remesnikov Igor Aleksandrovich operate in the clinic. Any microsurgical operation in the Ophthalmological Laser Center takes no more than 10 minutes! And most importantly, in most cases, immediately after the operation, vision begins to fully recover, and people, without exaggeration, see the world anew! Do not delay the realization of your dream of good vision, come and SEE FOR YOURSELF!