Benefits of Cataract Surgery

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Before Scheduling Your Cataract Surgery

After your doctor has completed your Cataract Evaluation, you will be scheduled for a Pre-Operative Appointment. During this visit, you will review all of the details to prepare you for your surgery, undergo a series of tests, and schedule your surgery and post-operative visits. Please review the information on the Pre-Operative Appointment here.

Preparing for Cataract Surgery After Your Pre-Operative Appointment

To prepare for your cataract surgery with either Dr. McManus or Dr. Darlington at The Center for Cataract Care at Eye Institute, please become familiar with the following information:

Medical Clearance:

At the discretion of your surgeon, you may need to obtain a medical clearance to have an outpatient procedure from your family physician or cardiologist. This clearance is typically valid for up to six months from the date on file. This may include a history and physical, and possibly an EKG and chest X-ray. You may be required to have additional diagnostic or lab tests at your surgeon’s discretion. No food or beverages after midnight, unless instructed otherwise, do NOT eat or drink after midnight on the night prior to your surgery.

Medications:

You will be given instructions regarding any medications your currently take, such as diabetic medications, at your Pre-Operative Appointment. Carefully follow the Pre-Op Instructions sheet that is provided to you during this visit, paying special attention to any medications or supplements that you are taking that may act as blood thinners. If you are not certain which of your medications or supplements are blood thinners, or which as a side effect, may cause excessive bleeding, please be sure to ask at your Pre-Operative Appointment.

What to Wear:

Clean clothes, short sleeve tops, preferably that button in the front, no dresses, no body suits, no turtlenecks. Do not wear eye makeup, facial moisturizer, perfume, cologne, or body mist.

Location:

The Eye Institute Surgery Center located at 1995 W. NASA Boulevard Suite 100, at our Melbourne Office. When you enter the building, the Surgery Center is on the first floor on the left side and directly across from The LASIK Center. For directions, please click here.

Arrival:

You will be given a date for your surgery when scheduling during your Pre-Operative Appointment. The day prior to your surgery, you will receive a call with a scheduled time to arrive. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled time. Upon arrival, you will be asked to complete certain Surgical Center forms, including an informed consent. Bring all of your medical insurance cards with you. All outstanding co-payments, deductibles and out of pocket expenses must be paid in full prior to surgery.

Length of Stay:

Plan on being at our facility for two to three hours, unless you have been advised otherwise. Occasionally, unforeseen emergencies may cause delays. When such circumstances occur, we politely ask for your patience while we do everything in our power to keep you comfortable and treat you and our other patients, kindly and with dignity and respect, while doing all that we can to ensure that your experience with us is one that you will ultimately describe as excellent.

Need for a Driver:

You will need someone to take you home. Friends and relatives must wait for you in our Patient Reception Area in the Surgery Center (adjacent to the desk). The surgery center will NOT release you without a companion.

During Cataract Surgery

• First, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist will provide a mild sedative to make your surgery more comfortable and to help you to relax.
• To remove the cataract, your cataract surgeon will make a microscopic incision and gently removes the cataract in a procedure called phacoemulsification.
• Next, the intraocular lens (IOL), specially selected for you by your surgeon, is inserted through the same microscopic incision and placed into the lens capsule of your eye where the cataractous natural lens was located. The procedure usually takes less than fifteen minutes.
• All of our cataract surgeons perform surgery at our state-of-the-art, fully accredited Ambulatory Surgery Center on an outpatient basis, with most cases being performed under topical anesthesia.
• Because this procedure is performed through a microscopic incision, the eye usually seals itself without the need for stitches.
• Following the procedure, most people return home within an hour or so. The vast majority of patients experience substantial visual improvement with 24 to 48 hours. In most cases, vision continues to improve in the weeks following the procedure until you achieve your best-possible vision.

After Cataract Surgery

You will return to one of our offices to be examined one day and one week following your surgery and then at intervals determined by your physician. You should have someone with you at home after surgery to help you with instilling your post procedure eye medications.

Go Home and Rest:

After surgery you will be wearing an eye shield. Keep the shield on the entire first day except to place eye drops as instructed. (If your eye is patched closed, don’t start your medications until seen by your physician the next day, or unless otherwise instructed.)

Eye Drops:

You started some of these eye drops a few days prior to surgery. Usually, the antibiotic eye drop you started will be used for one week. The two other eye drops, which are used to prevent inflammation, will be both used for three to six weeks, depending upon your individual rate of healing.

• Unless otherwise instructed, restart your glaucoma medications or other eye drops, such as Restasis, that you were using prior to your eye surgery.
• Wait 2 to 3 minutes between placing each of your eye drops
• Bring all of your eye medications to each of your post-operative eye examinations.

Back to Work:

In many cases you will be able to return to work within a few days to one week following your surgery, depending on your occupation and the specific duties you are required to perform at your job.

Exercise:

You may resume some physical activities in as soon as one day after your surgery. Do not bend or strain excessively, nor attempt to lift heavy weights on until cleared by your physician to do so.

Precautions:

• No heavy lifting (over 30 pounds), no bending over, and no straining for one week.
• Do not rub or push on your eye.
• Do not allow water to flow directly at or into your eyes for 5 days after surgery.
• Do not use makeup, moisturizer, perfume or cologne for 5 days after surgery
• Do not swim or use Jacuzzis, hot tubs, or saunas for 2 weeks. Do not use hair chemicals (color treatments or harsh solutions) for 10 days after surgery.
• Wear the eye shield at bedtime after surgery for one week.

Pets:

Please be sure to wash linens after your surgery. Please do not sleep with pets. Their fine hair may get into your eyes possibly causing irritation or an infection.

Surgery on your second eye:

If you and your surgeon have determined that you need cataract surgery in both eyes, the second eye surgery can usually be performed two weeks following your first eye procedure.

Eyeglasses:

If necessary, eyeglasses will be prescribed by your physician or your co-managing ophthalmologist or doctor of optometry, usually six weeks following your eye surgery.

Normal healing:

You may experience mild redness, mild foreign body sensation, mild dryness, mild tenderness to touch, and mildly fluctuating vision.

CALL THE OFFICE IMMEDIATELY IF:

• You have severe eye pain.
• Your vision becomes worse.
• The redness of your eye worsens.
• Your eyelids become swollen or become stuck shut.
• You have flashes of light or sudden worsening of floaters.
• You have a curtain over a portion of your vision or you see what appears to be cobwebs in your vision.