A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens inside the eye. Age-related cataract is the world's most frequent cause of curable blindness. However, cataracts can also be congenital due to injury or hereditary causes.
Three main types of lens opacity are described in age-related cataract: nuclear (the nucleus of the lens), cortical (cortex) and posterior subcapsular (the back for the membrane surrounding the lens). Although cortical cataract is probably the most frequent type, nuclear and posterior subcapsular cataracts (which primarily affect the optical axis of the eye lens) are the types of cataract that more frequently cause visual deterioration and prompt persons to seek surgical intervention.
Initial treatment often consists of stronger eyeglasses or contact lenses. Once a clouded lens develops, surgical removal is the only treatment. However, the decision to surgically remove cataracts should be based on the person's own perception of vision difficulties and need and the effect of vision loss on normal activity.
Cataract surgery has become one of the most frequently performed outpatient surgeries in North America with more than 1.2 million cataract surgical procedures each year.
The Medifocus Guide on Cataract provides answers to the following important questions and medical issues:
What are the most common symptoms of cataract?
Are there any recognized risk factors for developing cataract?
What kinds of medical tests are used to establish the diagnosis of cataract?
What is the current standard of care for the treatment of cataract?
What treatment options are available for the management of cataract?
Are there any promising new developments or potential breakthroughs in treatment?
Who are the most notable medical authorities who specialize in cataract?
Where are the leading hospitals and centers of research for cataract?
What are the most important questions to ask my doctor about cataract?
What Your Doctor Reads:
This MediFocus Guide contains an extensive listing of citations and abstracts of recent journal articles that have been published about this condition in trustworthy medical journals. This is the same type of information that is available to physicians and other health care professionals. A partial selection of journal articles that are abstracted in this MediFocus Guide includes:
Congenital cataracts: gene mapping. Human Genetics. 2000
The Stickler syndrome: case reports and literature review. Optometry (St. Louis, Mo.). 2000
The genetics of childhood cataract. Journal of Medical Genetics. 2000
Ultraviolet radiation and cataract. Journal of Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2000
Review: Oxidative stress and disease. Journal of Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2000
Review: Age-related cataract: immunity and lens epithelium-derived growth factor (LEDGF). Journal of Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2000
Lens UVA photobiology. Journal of Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2000
Cataract surgery in patients with uveitis. International Ophthalmology Clinics. 2000
Health-related quality of life in patients with cataract and glaucoma. Journal of Glaucoma. 2000
Design of Physicians' Health Study II--a randomized trial of beta-carotene, vitamins E and C, and multivitamins, in prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and eye disease, and review of results of completed trials. Annals of Epidemiology. 2000
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