Video FAQ’s: Cataract surgery: How long does cataract surgery take?

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Cataract surgery: How long does cataract surgery take?

How long does cataract surgery take? Well for most patients if it is a straightforward case, it’s usually about 10 minutes. That’s not rushing or hurrying; it just works out that if every step is perfect and nicely in sequence, there’s a natural momentum to it, a nice process and the steps will be completed in about 10 minutes.

Some patients have more complex eyes. They may have a particularly dense cataract, there might be some weakness in the support for their own natural lens, and that takes extra care and extra time and that might take a little bit longer, but for most patients were able to complete the surgery in in about 10 minutes.

Although the surgery itself will only be about 10 minutes, you’ll be with us in the clinic for about two hours. We need to make sure that you come in and relax, have a little drink, take the blood pressure, make sure everything’s well with you and then most patients require some eye drops to make their pupil large before we take them in for the surgery.

We go through our checks which are incredibly important. It’s the same kind of approach I think pilots take before taking off. So we have a check and cross-check with all the team members in the theatre to ensure that we’re all completely certain that we’re looking after the correct patient, the correct eye of the correct patient, and we have the correct lens for the correct eye and the correct patient. We do not proceed until we’re completely certain about those checks.

At the end of the case, we take away the drain, lead the patient through to the reception area where they can relax and have a drink. The nurse will then carefully go through all of the do’s and don’ts for the patient, show the patient the eye drops that need to be used as postoperative medication and make sure the patient’s happy with the regime for the drops that need to be used to ensure a nice recovery for the eye.

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By James Ball | June 1, 2017 | Posted in , ,
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