• What Is Cataract?
• Causes and Symptoms
• What Is To Be Done?
• Cataract Treatment
• PHACOEMULSIFICATION
• Interocular Lens (IOL)
• Operation and Anesthesia
• Ambulatorial Operation
• At Home after the Operation
• Childrens’Cataract
• Possible Complications Caused by the Operation
• The Secondary Cataract
• Conclusions

Ambulatorial Operation

Considering the above mentioned subjects, the cataract removal through phacoemulsification under local anesthesia allows to perform the operation at a day-hospital.
This means that the patient can go back home within two hours with the advantage of being not compelledo to stay in an environment that is not his usual one and, above all, with no risks. . The patient reaches the center about one hour before the operation, with his common hemathologic examinations previously performed. The day before operation he was subjected to a drops therapy and that same day to an antibiotic therapy. He does not need any particular clothing because he will not sleep there. At his arrival, a nurse will instill some drops for producing the pupil dilatation; these drops will be instilled every fifteen minutes for about an hour. An ELECTROCARDIOGRAM is also practiced during this time. When the pupil reaches a perfect dilatation, the patient is led to the fore operating room where local anesthesia is practiced; after twenty-thirty resting minutes waiting for the anesthetic reaction, the patient is carried into the operating theatre where he will stay for about twenty minutes, the time needed for disinfection and operation.
After that, the patient will get out the operating theatre with a gauze tampon over the operated eye, and he will meet his relatives; he will be kept under observation for twenty-thirty minutes, after that, he will return home.

Childrens'cataract deserves to be dealt separately, as it can even subsist since the birth (contagious diseases catch by the mother during pregnancy, hereditary diseases) or arise in a second time because of a trauma or of an abnormal crystalline growth. This kind of cataract can also be treated only by means of a surgical operation, as there is no kind of possible pharmacological treatment. The operation is similar to the adult's phacoemulsification operation, but basically, being the crystalline very soft a small probe sucks it without utilizing any ultrasound. The main difference between the childrens'cataract and the same pathological condition related to adult people is that operation must be considered necessary and urgent. . It is necessary because the process of sight is developed only during the first months of life, a time when brain absolutely needs to receive from eyes more and more clear images as possible. It is urgent because the crystalline dulling could affect this development thus producing a sight reduction (AMBLYOPIA) which becomes more and more serious proportionally to the age when operation is performed. But the opaque crystalline removal is only the first step of the treatment; it is essential to obtain an adequate optical correction for providing the retina with well focused images in order to comply with the above mentioned requirement.