A PCO can be treated with a YAG laser capsulotomy, which takes a few minutes and is safe, effective and painless. During the procedure, your doctor will remove the hazy posterior capsule with a laser, eliminating any incision. Patients can resume normal activities immediately after the surgery, with the help of anti-inflammation eye drops. Only 1% of patients may suffer from a detached retina from a YAG laser capsulotomy.

Another complication for a cataract surgery can be mal-positioned IOL, which may lead to double vision or severe visual acuity decrease. There are two underlying reasons that may cause dislocated IOLs: broken capsule bag and dislocated capsule bag. Since the IOL is placed within the extremely thin capsule bag, a broken bag due to accidents may lead to dislocated IOL. The other reason comes from a dislocated capsule bag, which will surely lead to dislocated IOL.

Dislocated IOLs can also result from operational mistakes during the IOL positioning process. Once an IOL dislocation is found, a second procedure to reposition the lens will be taken soon. With proper treatment, dislocated IOLs won’t bring permanent vision problems.

Although the most severe complication may lead to vision loss, complication-free cataract surgeries account for 98% of the total. Other potential complications include minor eye inflammation, retinal detachment, retinal or corneal swelling, eye pressure increase and droopy eyelid. You should always tell your doctor about your floaters, light flashes and curtain-like vision loss, in order to receive immediate treatments.

However, the implantation of a multifocal IOL will cost the patient much more, and demands more expertise from the surgeon. The extra fee for a multifocal IOL may reach as high as $2,500, which is out of the Medicare and insurance plans. The benefits from multifocal IOLs lie in that they can restore your vision at multiple distances: near vision, intermediate vision and distance vision. Many physical and optical factors may exclude a person as a candidate for multifocal IOLs. Actually, a standard surgery with single-vision IOLs is enough for the majority of people. A standard cataract surgery provides promising distance vision.

Even if you choose a standard surgery, there are many aspects you should ask your friends and relatives for their reviews about their experiences, such as the surgeon’s courtesy, detailed billing, follow-up care and the most importantly, outcome. You may also get recommendation for the optometrist or ophthalmologist who has diagnosed your cataracts. Once you have made a primary choice of a certain surgeon, you should consult his or her staff some issues directly: the number of procedures he has succeeded, eye infection rate and the IOL type. Of course, you can get some information from their handouts.

The selection of surgeons for a multifocal IOL implantation involves more complexity. The first problem you should be aware of is the type or types of multifocal IOLs that the surgeon can deal with. There are four FDA-approved multifocal IOLs: IQ ReSTOR, ReZoom, Tecnis Multifocal and Crystalens, all of which require different procedures, expertise and also have slightly different outcomes. Patients should never believe in a surgery that guarantees a perfect vision recovery. Qualified surgeons will inform you about potential risks and complications and make your expectations realistic. This is very important since no IOL can guarantee perfect vision. The surgeon may also advise the patient to take an additional astigmatism correction procedure.

The surgeon’s credibility for a multifocal IOL surgery is critical, since most of the standard cataract surgeons can not insert a multifocal IOL. Some organizations offer validation information of cataract surgeons, such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the National Practitioner Data Band.