29.01.2019
In the future, patients with cataracts will see even better after surgery. The Hanusch-Krankenhaus Hospital of the Vienna Territorial Health Insurance Fund has developed a new method that makes it possible to select an intraocular lens implant more accurately.
Lenticular opacity or cataract is the most common cause of blindness. It leads to progression of lens opacity. According to Oliver Findl, Chief of Department of Ophthalmology at the Hanusch-Krankenhaus Hospital, the only thing that helps is surgery. During the operation, the opacified lens is removed and an intraocular lens implant is inserted into the affected eye.
After surgery, many patients see relatively well at least at a distance, however, about ten percent of patients need glasses. “Now we can further reduce this number to about five or even less than five percent, and this is progress, another step forward,” says Findl.
Findl, along with the other staff, worked on a device that made it possible to get a more accurate result of the operation. “Now we have the opportunity not only to measure the eye before the operation but also to make additional measurements for an even more accurate calculation of the parameters of the intraocular lens implant,” says Findl.
This method is already made use of at the Hanusch-Krankenhaus Hospital. The waiting time for the operation is 4-5 months. In 2017, almost 8,500 people were operated on because of cataracts. This minimally invasive intervention is usually performed as a routine surgical procedure. Cataract surgery is also performed at the Vienna General Hospital, at the Hietzing, Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung and Donauspital hospitals.
