cataract surgery for refractive reasons

My daughter, will be 42 soon and has corrective contact lenses that have a power of 26.75 f(probably diopters) for myopia.  She has a slight astigmatism that can be corrected with overglasses if needed. If no contact lenses are used, she wearts glasses resembling the miodisk/lenticular.  She has floaters in both eyes but a retinologist has monitored the retina and seems ok except for the fact that it is stretched which what causes the myopia. Very small cataracts are visible but do not impair vision.

We were curious how far along technology had come to improve vision and were told Lasik was out of the question.  We sought a couple of doctors to find out about Phakic IOL and cataract surgery with an IOL.  Since surgery can cause cataracts to grow, and the farsightedness transition of the 40 age range may still occur,  it was suggested
to do the cataract surgery for refractive reasons and implant an IOL.  Reading glasses would be needed and they think they can get 20/40 vision approx.
Do you think people in their 40s are too young to sacrifice their natural lens or do you find people are satisfied having
this procedure? I am concerned about her seeing in the intermediate range-everyday life and tasks and since she is a teacher in a classroom, will this be an asset or a setback?  Her contacts allow her a lot of freedom and has worn them for over 20 years with not much problem.  Every so often there is irritation which can be an annoyance.  Wearing the glasses to work is not an option.  Should she wait or go ahead to reap the benefits now rather than later?I'd appreciate any advice.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

I advise if she is having no problems with contact lenses that she should probably stay away from surgery.  Intraocular lens technology, particulary monofocal aspheric lenses, are excellent, however it is the health of your daughter's eyes that  concerns me most.  In other words, that will be the limiting factor.  There will be plenty of time in the future to take on cataract surgery when a real cataract develops.  In the meantime, since there are no guarantees that she will be free of glasses or contacts after surgery, I would just continue with current contacts until problems of some sort force her into the position of needing cataract surgery.  Just my thoughts.  If she has extreme myopia as you say I think this is the best advice.

Michael Kutryb, MD