Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon
Premium Cataract
Surgery
When the natural lens of the eye becomes cloudy making it difficult to focus, it is called a cataract. Over time the cataract will limit your vision, making it difficult to see well enough to carry out your daily activities, such as reading, driving, and playing sports.
If the cataract is not removed your vision may stay the same; however, it will probably gradually get worse. Waiting for a longer period of time is likely to make the operation more difficult.
The purpose of the operation is to replace the cloudy lens (cataract) with a plastic lens implant inside the eye - an intraocular lens (IOL). The operation is carried out under local anesthetic.
| Why get it done privately?
There are some key differences if you decide to have your cataract surgery done privately. Privately you will benefit from no waiting lists or long delays for cataract surgery and you will be able to choose the ophthalmic surgeon who will perform it. This way you are reassured that you will get the best results. Also your eye surgeon will be able to correct your vision so that you no longer need glasses after surgery.
Most people choose to have a lens implanted in the eye that typically allows them clear distance vision without glasses, but, with the placement of a standard intraocular lens, patients would almost certainly require reading glasses for close work. Furthermore, if the patients have pre-existing astigmatism (irregular shape of the cornea) they would require distant and reading glasses after cataract surgery as the standard lens does not affect the amount of astigmatism. Unfortunately, the NHS is currently providing ‘standard’ intraocular lenses only.
The main benefits of private cataract surgery is the ability to choose what kind of lens is implanted and your surgeon.
Cataract is broken in small pieces
Cornea
The front of the eye
Ultrasonic probe used to break cataract into small pieces and then aspirated
Artificial lens implant
| What is a cataract?
| Toric | Multifocal | Bifocal
There are three main types of Premium Intraocular Lenses, which may be suitable for you, which will increase the chance of you not needing glasses after surgery.
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Toric IOLs, which allow the correction of pre-existing astigmatism.
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Multifocal IOLs are similar in concept to bifocal or varifocal glasses, except that the lens is within the eye; the goal of these lenses is to allow the ability to see both distance (e.g. driving) intermediate (e.g. computer work) and near (e.g. reading) without glasses.
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Toric multifocal IOLs combine the advantages of both these types of lenses.
Toric lenses
When most people think of an eye’s shape, they think of round structure, like a basketball. In truth, most eyes are more rugby ball-shaped, with the eye being a little squashed in one direction. This irregularity is known as astigmatism and is easily corrected with glasses, but, if marked, a patient’s vision without glasses will be quite poor.
A toric IOL is a bespoke lens placed inside an eye to correct a patient’s astigmatism, at the same time reducing the patient’s short- or long-sightedness. After surgery, the chance of needing glasses for distance is greatly reduced, although without the simultaneous placement of a multifocal lens (‘toric multifocal’), patients should still expect to need reading glasses. Cataract surgery in patients with marked astigmatism using standard, non-toric IOLs does typically lead to improvements in vision, but patients will typically need glasses for distance and near vision following surgery.
Multifocal lenses
Multifocal lens implants feature a patented "apodized diffractive" design that optimally distributes light to distance, intermediate and near focal points, depending on the amount of ambient light available. This optimizes image quality in all lighting conditions.
With such lenses, about 95 % of people achieve day-to-day spectacle independence, meaning that typically they can both drive, use their smartphone and read, e.g. a restaurant menu, without glasses. For more prolonged reading, such as a novel, however, many patients still choose to wear reading glasses.
In the dark, some patients will experience haloes around lights; However, these tend to subside with time due to the neuroadaptive effect of the human brain.
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Bifocal lenses
Bifocal Lenses are presbyopic asymmetric segmented multifocal lenses designed to improve contrast sensitivity, minimize halos and glare, and provide superior near, intermediate and distance vision and can be used in patients with conditions that normally would contraindicate the use of a traditional multifocal lens.
Monofocal Intraocular Lens
Multifocal Intraocular
Lens
Toric multifocal lenses
These lenses combine the benefits of both toric and multifocal lenses, i.e. simultaneously improving astigmatism and aiming to achieve spectacle-independence for distance and near.
The TECNIS Eyhance IOL
This is a new monofocal lens which features a continuous change in power from the periphery to the centre of the lens, creating a unique anterior surface that improves intermediate vision, maintains distance image quality comparable to aspheric monofocal lenses, and delivers a profile of photic phenomena similar to monofocal lenses.
| Try the simulator
Zeiss Lens manufacturer built this useful tool to better explain some of the differences and limitations of the various lens designs. These principles apply to Cataract and RLE surgery as well, because the same lenses are available for both types of surgery.
Click the image below to visit the simulator now.
|Cataract Surgery at Kent Eye Centre
The videos below offer detailed information about how we handle Cataract Surgery at our Centre and the technologies we use to give your eyes the best treatment available.
| Further information on Premium Cataract Surgery
Click the images below for more information about the lenses Mr. Kopsachilis uses.
If you have further questions, please check our FAQ's page by clicking here.
You can also reach out using our contact form, or request a in person consultation by clicking here.
Verion image guided system
This new system offers most advanced surgical options available to a cataract and refractive surgeon with unparallel refractive accuracy and high patient satisfaction.
Learn how it is done
Clear and complete description of the complete procedure.