28 y/o got a Cataract in 1983 - Blind in my right eye - Should I get surgery? (Lasik need not apply)?

When I was 4 years old I got a cataract in my right eye. At that time complete lens removal was the only option. For the past 24 years I have not had strong vision in my right eye due to lens removal. If I close my left eye I can see colors in the distance (15 feet) or able to make out how many fingers a person is holding up as long as there is light behind them (at about 8 feet). With my left eye open, I only see out of my right eye when I think about it. My brain seems to shut it off.

Here is what doctors have told me: I could receive the surgery with a 50/50 chance that my eye would become infected and complete eye removal would be necessary, they could do the surgery and I could not notice a difference, slight chance of success.

Lasik is not a possibility due to no lens in my eye. My eye is not deformed (it鈥檚 not collapsed). I am only able to visit doctors in the Houston area. If you know a mad scientist that would like to put a computer in my right eye..I鈥檓 game.

I have seen patients in their 20s who had cataract surgery as children have no problems with getting the secondary lens. Even in a lot of those children who had cataract surgery and were aphakic, they wore a contact lens to help correct their vision.

Unless you have another ocular condition that would open you up to infection, the chance of infection is a lot lower than 50/50...more like 5%. And even intraocular infections (endophthalmitis) are quite treatable.

As with any surgery, there are risks, and never a guarantee for dramatic improvement.

Do check out Wheaton Eye Clinic. There is a Glaucoma and Cataract specialist there that I do have knowledge of by the name of Dr. Edward Sung (we have referred patients there who go to Dallas/Houston for the winter). There are also other very good cataract surgeons there.

Also Baylor College of Medicine's Ophthalmology Department-Cullen Eye Institute is very good in your area. There is a neuro-ophthalmologist we refer patients to.

It sounds like you may need a second (or third) opinion to help you make your decision on the surgery.

Best of luck to you...I cannot tell you if you should get surgery or not...that decision has to come from you and your family and close friends. But if you do decide you need another opinion, contact one of these two Eye Centers...they are recommended per referrals from my ophthalmology staff.

if you really are "suppressing" the image from that eye, then even if you had surgery it is a little unlikely IMO that you'd use that eye anyway. you'd likely still "suppress" even if you had a clearer image over there.

one way to do a test run would be to go to an optometrist & start wearing a contact lens (likely a high plus lens) for a little while. not saying you should do that long term...just long enough to see if you can tell a difference. if your whole life is changed and your overall vision is 1000X better...then by all means start considering surgical procedures. but more likely IMO what will happen is that it wont change your life much. sure, you'll see better out of the "bad" eye when you shut the good eye, but as soon as both eyes are open your brain is likely to pretty much instantly go back to suppressing the bad eye again, regardless that its now "corrected" and you have better vision from it. wearing a temporary contact lens over there would be a good way IMO to try it out and see if correcting that eye is worth it...

Your numbers are just plain wrong. The chance for infection during any cataract or secondary lens implant surgery is 0.5%, if that. Actually it's even lower, but using the same 5 munber makes the point.

If they left the capsule in, then the intraocular lens can be placed either within the old capsule or just in front of in...called the sulcus lenses....still a posterior lens.

Your vision should be excellent IF there's been no damage to the retina or nerve from that initial injury.

The long period of poor vision will NOT be something you need to get over. You'll fuse the images just fine as you learned this before the cataract occurred. You've already got the neurophysiology intact...it isn't unlearned.

You'll do fine. You don't need any intraocular computers....

I wouldn't hesitate to do it, or to recommend it.

I would tend to agree with Paul since usually by age 4 your visual system is already matured. If there is no damage to the the other structures in the eye your outcome should be pretty good. But, before you go jumping into any surgical procedure I would recommend getting at least two different opinions and doing a lot of research on the doctor you select. Good luck!!

To answer whether one should undergo surgery, you have to weigh risks (which most of the other answerers have addressedd) vs. benefits (which, to this point, none have addressed).

What do you hope to get out of this? And I don't mean 'better vision': how will better vision in your right eye, which you have not needed to use for the majority of your years, improve your life?

If there are good reasons (e.g. you see great with a RPG lens but are now contact lens intolerant; your new job requires some level of stereo vision; your personality is such that you'd rather try and fail than live never knowing how good your vision is; you love playing a sport which requires better vision in your right eye, etc.), then these certainly outweigh the (small) risks in the hands of a good surgeon.

If you have no good reasons (e.g. your doctor suggested it; you have an unrealistic notion that you have a 90%+ chance of recovering 20/20 vision with full stereopsis with no long term consequences; you want to play contact sports), then it is never acceptable to proceed with surgery.

BTW, the risk of infection is small, but now always treatable (we can kill organisms and control inflammation, but currently have no treatment against bacteria toxins which cause direct damage to the retina). Also, there are long-term risks, which can't be ignored: macular edema, chronic inflammation, retinal detachment, glaucoma; these can occur many years af ter the surgery - while most surgeons will not make much of these, they may forget that you're only 28, and if a surgeon thinks he can suture a lens inside your eye and expect 0% complication rate over 50 years, you've got a surgeon that's not thinking ahead. Example of a not-so-impossible scenario: you get the procedure, get so-so (but more functional vision than currenlty), otherwise happy: when you're 50, you develop glaucoma, don't respond to medicaiton, and they have to do surgery - oops, there is so much old scarring from this surgery you had at age 28, that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd glaucoma surgeries fail. The 4th one, done by the second glaucoma specialist, takes, after you lost significant vision from uncontrolled glaucoma.

First ask the question: what do you want to get out of this? Then, compare these 'benefits' over the risks.

Good luck.

faith and belief is the answer right now.you've got to believe that once you have the surgery,you will be alright.Since professionals have adviced surgery is about the best option,the rest job is left for you to do.If you are a christian and you believe in miracles,then go for the surgery and the good Lord will surprise you.Its all in the mind.believe it and you will be ok.

My mother-in-law is having her cataract surgery on Thursday. She is a diabetic.

She was skeptical about the surgery, but her vision is decreasing.

Before jumping into any surgery, get as much information as you can about the surgery. I would get at least 2 opinions.

Here is an excellent source on Cataract Surgery.

Yes get the surgury done as soon as possible. Haveing a catract on your eye decreases your vision to see well or to see at all.