Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the United States. More than 1.5 million cataract operations are performed each year. In this Health Alert Johns Hopkins answers the question: Will cataract surgery worsen my age-related macular degeneration?
A cataract is an opacification (cloudiness) of the eye's normally clear crystalline lens. Derived from the Latin word meaning waterfall, the term "cataract" arose from the ancient misconception that evil liquids flowing into the eye were the cause of cataract symptoms.
Cataracts can occur at any age (in fact, babies can be born with cataracts), but cataracts are most common later in life. In the United States, 75% of people over age 60 have some sign of cataracts. It is estimated that more than 20 million Americans over age 40 (approximately 17%) have had a cataract. That number is anticipated to reach about 30 million by the year 2020.
Q. Is it true that cataract surgery might worsen my age-related macular degeneration?
A. So far, no evidence proves that cataract surgery worsens age-related macular degeneration. The suggestion that it might arose largely from several small studies and the large Beaver Dam Eye Study, which found that advanced age-related macular degeneration developed more often in eyes that had cataract surgery than in those that did not. Researchers speculated that perhaps inflammation from the surgery spurred the progression of age-related macular degeneration.
Another theory suggested that the replacement lens inserted in the eye during cataract surgery did not protect the eye from "blue light," light waves that may increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration. But neither of those theories has panned out.
Some researchers suspect that many of the people had undetected age-related macular degeneration at the time of the cataract surgery, which may have been causing their vision problems.
A cataract can obscure a detailed view of the retina, making it difficult to identify subtle features of advanced age-related macular degeneration The seven-year Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), which involved 4,700 people, found no link between cataract surgery and a progression from dry age-related macular degeneration to the more severe wet form.
