Cataract Flashcards
Vision-impairing disease characterized by thickening of the lens:
Cataract
Is an age-related vision-impairing disease characterized by gradual progressive thickening of the lens of the eye:
Senile Cataract
It is the world’s leading cause of treatable blindness:
Senil Cataract
Gradual progressive visual deterioration, disturbance in night and near vision, decreased visual acuity, glare and monocular diplopia :
Presentation
The most common complaint of patients with senile cataract:
Decreased visual acuity
Decrease in contrast sensitivity in brightly lit environments or disabling glare during the day or oncoming headlights at night:
Glare
The progression of cataract frequently increases the anteroposterior (AP) axis and therefore the diopteric power of the lens resulting in:
Myopic shift (increased myopia)
The monocular diplopia is not correctable with:
Spectacles, prisms or contact lenses
When the patient complains of glare, visual acuity should be tested in a:
Brightly lit room
Detects a Marcus Gunn pupil or a relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) indicative of optic nerve lesions or diffuse macular involvement:
Swinging flashlight test
Are requested when a significant posterior pole pathology is suspected and an adequate view of the back of the eye is obscured by a dense cataract:
Ultrasonography, CT or MRI
Clinical staging of senile cataract is based largely on:
the visual acuity of the patient
Clinical staging of senile cataract:
Hypermature, mature, immature and incipient
Patient reports visual complaints but can still read at 20/20 despite lens opacity confirmed via slit lamp examination:
Incipient Cataract (Dysfunctional Lens Synd.)
Patient can distinguish letters at lines better than 20/200:
Immature Cataract
Patient cannot read better than 20/200 on the visual acuity chart:
Mature Cataract
Patient generally sees worse than count fingers (CF) or hand motion (HM) owing to a dense white, deeply dark opaque brunescent, or Morgagnian cataract:
Hypermature Cataract
is the definitive treatment for senile cataract:
Lens extraction and Intraocular lens implantation
Involves extraction of the entire lens, including the posterior capsule and zonules:
Intracapsular Cataract Extraction
Involves the removal of the lens nucleus through an opening in the anterior capsule and a relatively large limbal incision, with retention of the integrity of the posterior capsule
Extracapsular Cataract Extraction
Also involves extraction of the lens nucleus through an opening in the anterior capsule; an ultrasonically driven needle is used to fragment the nucleus of the cataract; the lens substrate is then aspirated through a needle port via a small limbal or scleral incision:
Phacoemulsification
