Congenital cataracts

Why does the congenital cataract develop?

Sometimes a child be born with a cataract in one or both eyes. Such congenital cataracts occur usually due to developmental disorders or some infections even while the child is in the womb.Cloudy lens prevents entering of the light in the eye, soeven if the rest of the eye is completely healthy, vision of the child will not be able to develop and will remain highly amblyopic even after the surgery is successfully performed. Therefore, the congenital cataract surgery is necessary to perform as soon as possible, even in babies.  

What does the congenital cataract surgery look like?

During the surgery an incision of only a few millimeters is made, and with the help of ultrasound a cloudy lens is removed.Through a small incision, an artificial lens is implanted. The artificial lens is located at the same place where the natural lens was positioned, it is not visible in the eye and it lasts the whole life. After cataract surgery is performed, a treatment should be continued (glasses, patching in order to improve the development of visual acuity in the operated eye. The surgery is performed under general anesthesia and it takes up to ten minutes per eye.  As the natural lens in babies is softer than in older patients in whom such a surgery is usually carried out, ultrasonic part of the surgery can be made with considerably less energy and therefore it is even less traumatic to the eye.

Why clinic Svjetlost?

In order to be as close as possible to the physiology and function of a child's eye we implant lenses that are closest to our natural vision (adjustment for looking at all distances). By implanting such lenses, a child preservs the ability to adjust the eye tohave a sharp vision in all distances (short, middle and long distance) and enable a good vision. There are several types of such lenses from which the most recent are Symfony lenses with extended range of vision.