Cataract-surgery

With nearly 600 000 operations a year, cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed in Germany across all medical disciplines; it is also one of the procedures with the lowest risks and generally very successful.

It not only gives back patients their clear vision; the procedure can also reduce or even eliminate additionally existing visual defects. By aligning the optical effect of the artificial lens, patients will in some cases only need weak reading glasses after the operation. And for patients dreaming of a life without glasses, there is also the option of implanting multifocal lenses.

The surgery is performed on an outpatient basis under local anaesthesia. To begin with, the eye is numbed with drops. In case of very nervous patients, it is also possible to perform the operation under a general anaesthetic to avoid complications due to their restlessness. The procedure is pain-free and takes no longer than 10 minutes per eye. Only one eye is operated at a time – mostly the more severely affected eye is treated first. Generally, the second eye is operated one to two weeks later.