Is It Better to Have Cataract Surgery on Both Eyes or One Eye?

February 1, 2013

The latest issue of Ophthalmology from the American Academy of Ophthalmology reported on a study finding that second-eye cataract surgery may result in better visual functioning than single-eye surgery.

Studying nearly 1,800 patients who had not yet undergone surgery for cataract, researchers concluded that unilateral cataract surgery (i.e., surgery in one eye) improves visual functioning, the largest gains are found in patients who undergo second-eye cataract surgery. As such, they recommended second-eye cataract surgery for patients with visual or functional symptoms even after successful first-eye surgery.

Click here to read the full abstract.

 

 



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2 Responses to “Is It Better to Have Cataract Surgery on Both Eyes or One Eye?”

  • ari

    yep. its obvious. but medicare and other insurance plans like to pretend you dont need the second eye done, and so they can claim they wont pay since its not “medically necesary”. these studies put pressure on them to stop that nonsense and pay for the procedure. this is what happens when the govt/3rd party gets in the way of the free market.

  • Sam Jones

    Call me crazy, but isn’t this a bit obvious? Of course vision would be better after having *both* eyes done rather than just one. Even if one eye has a more dense cataract, the other still most likely has a cataract too!

    So removing both cataracts would make for better vision after surgery….duh

    Seems obvious…but I’m not a surgeon so….