YAG - Secondary Cataract / PCO

[kcengage]

Is yagging a bad thing for the patient?  For the doctor?  

What are the good things for the patient (if any)? For the doctor?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

Restor can offer good near vision and reasonable distance vision if the refractive error and astigmatism is well corrected and there are no issues with pupil size or decentration. Proper patient selection and counseling is very, very important.  You really need to know what you are getting on the plus and negative side and what you could also expect with a monofocal lens or even monovision results with standard monofocal lenses.  Crystalens should also be discussed if you want to know all your options.  If you want to drive at night or work at night you may want to avoid the Restor the Rezoom since they very often cause significant glare and halos at night.  It seems that many people are quite happy with Restor results but there is a small subset of patients that can be extremely and permanantly unhappy with life altering visual side effects.

MJK MD

[Lindy16025]

What is the latest information concerning the ReStor IOC lens?  My doctor says there has been vast imporvement in this lens within the last 18 months.  Can I get stats on the success rate and any possible problems.  I need cataract surgery soon and need to make a decision.  I don't want to pay the extra money if I am not going to have very good vision at all points; close-up, intermediate and distance.  Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.    Thanks,  Lindy

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

It is very simple, very quick (about 2 or 3 minutes,) you feel nothing, very low risk (about 1 in 1000 chance of some type of problem.)  This is one thing that you really don't need to lose sleep over.  It is the only way to treat posterior capusular opacification- an it's  rather a miraculous procedure.  Oh and by the way, it improves the vision about 99.8% of the time.

MJK MD