How does the cataract procedure work? The cataract is a lens suspended inside your eye. We have to get access to that lens, and we do that through a tiny incision at the edge of the cornea.

We dilate the pupil, usually preoperatively, but now we can do that at the very beginning of the surgery. That gives us access to the front of the membrane that’s holding the lens inside the eye. We make a circular window in the front of that membrane,  and we can either do that with a laser or with simple surgical instruments. It’s a very straightforward surgical step.

We then mobilise the cataract material, material inside the eye with some fluid and then use a high-frequency ultrasound delivered through a tiny probe to liquefy the cataract and aspirated it through that tiny incision. Then we give the bag a nice polish and inject a clear acrylic lens folded up, so it goes through that small incision, and then we unfold into that bag suspended inside the eye.

So the lens is held in place by the same apparatus, the same membrane, same ligaments, that hold your natural lens as we’re sitting here, speaking to each other. It means that your eye thinks that it’s business as usual. With the lens held in place in the same way but with clarity restored by a lovely clear optic that’s centred and stable inside the eye.