cataract surgery

I had cat. surgery on my left eye one wk ago.My eye was dialated. During the 5-6 min. this operation took,the powerful overhead light was shined directly into my eye.  This was extremely painful.  Now I feel my eye may have been injured.  I have dull pain in the rear of the eye when I read. Now I am hesitant to have the second eye done.  I am wondering why an opthamologist would dialate a person's eye then shine a powerful light into it for five straight min.?  Isn't this bound to cause injury?.  I was always told not to look into the sun.....s.m. from IL(59 yrs. old)

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The delicate membranes in the front of the eye that must be preserved to hold the implant in place are often very hard to see, hence the bright light. Also the surgery use to be done by injection anesthesia that numbed the optic nerve and the operating light would not be seen. Now many cases are topical anesthesia meaning a drop or ointment is put on the eye to number the surface. The optic nerve is not put to sleep so the light is seen.

Modern microscopes have filters to stop the harmful spectrum from entering the eye.

The light from a microscope is nothing at all like the sun's like.

It is possible to damage the macula with the light from a microscope but the amount of time and degree of exposure is much greater than in the typical cataract operation.

JCH III MD

[cataractpatient]

Doctor, Thank you for taking the time to answer my concerns.  I feel a lot better now about eye number two....s.m from Peoria IL

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

You are welcome. We never like to operate in the dark.

JCH III MD

[Ashley52]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I couldn't seem to post to the one I originally started back in August.  Just wanted to give an update.  I had my 2nd eye done today with a ReStor lens and all I can say is WOW!  I can only hope this holds.  I am 12 hours post-op and I can see adequately at all distances.  My Crystalens is still not accomodating but the ReStor seems to be making up for it.  Perhaps if my surgeon can get rid of the small amount of astigmatism with relaxing limbal incisions as he is proposing I will have "perfect" vision.  It is night here and so I just went outside to test what so many have said about the halos with ReStor.  They are only slightly more than with my Crystalens eye and not anything that would ever cause me to complain.  I just wanted to thank you Dr. H for encouraging me when I was so down about my Crystalens and to tell others with problems, there is hope.