Will be having cataract surgery in the fall, and have to choose between surgery with knife vs that with a laser. Laser surgery not convered by insurance, would cost me $1500 per eye. OTOH, would laser surgery produce a more precise incision, with faster healing, less margin for error? Any advice from those who have been through this would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance to the awesome CC community!
I have no information to help you, but I will also be facing this in a couple of years.
What does your doctor recommend and why?
I don’t know what laser cataract surgery is but I used to work for an ophthalmology practice and the cataract patients were universally delighted with their procedures; there didn’t seem to be any dissatisfaction with the conventional knife. The big decision was what lens to get, one with a fixed focus or a multifocus lens.
My mom had it done awhile ago. I believe they did one eye and after it healed did the 2nd eye. Her surgery was totally paid for between her Medicare and BCBS, I believe. I never asked whether it was surgery or lazer because my brother the Ophthamologist was the person most involved with all issues regarding her eyes. She healed very rapidly but now there’s some “crinkling” and the Ophthamologist has indicated she could have a 2nd procedure to correct this–have let mom and brother decide (I suspect they will leave well enough alone).
What’s “crinkling”?
Sort of like when you crinkle plastic. It can happen some time after cataract surgery and some folks opt to have it repaired thru a 2nd surgery if it starts to worsen vision. I’m sure there’s a more technical way to describe it but that’s what I recall from the brief conversation as we were leaving the Ophthamologist’s office.
By “laser” I mean that the incisions will be made by a laser, not by a scalpel.
Is the crinkling related to the capsule containing the lens becoming cloudy? I read somewhere that in 20% of catararct surgeries, the capsule becomes cloudy, restricting light entering the brand-new lens. This is treated with some kind of laser as well, “cleaning up” the surface of the capsule so that light may pass through it. OR, this could be a totally different condition.
For my mom, it’s a fairly common belated effect of the cataract surgery, according to the surgeon.
Choose the Doctor and go with what he suggests.
Or if you are determined to select your surgical method then find the best doc for that method.
Your choice.
I will be facing this soon enough. Traditional cataract surgery takes about 30 minutes. Everyone I know who has had it has had no lingering issues by the next morning (except that vision may not have full adjusted).
Not sure I see the benefit of laser for a procedure like this…
But agree with others. Ask the doctor.
And for any operation, you want someone with lots of experience in that particular kind of surgery.
I faced the same issue this past year and went with the conventional method, rather than the machine-version. Trusting the doctor with either method is critical, so my thinking was that trusting him with my eyes at all means that I can trust him to do the cut. Paying an addition $1500.00 per eye that my insurance company wasn’t going to cover
didn’t seem worthwhile.
Asking the doctor, he said outcomes are comparable for both and that he was confident with his experience.
Because he operates at a third-party surgical center, he said that he feels the laser version for this surgery is more up-sell than new technique.
Don’t worry about the surgery in general – the whole thing is weird, but way less stressful than I had imagined.
The most difficult thing about the procedures are all of the darn drops before and after.
My cataracts were on the early side (I’m in my 50’s) and I have other vision issues, but the results have been mostly good, although I’m just about to have the ‘capsule’ release laser zap that MADad mention upthread.
Either choice should be fine.
I had cataract surgery using the laser two years ago. My case was complicated because I also had to have glaucoma surgery at the same time, all thanks to shingles that invaded my optic nerve. In hindsight I’m not sure I would get the laser again ( my right eye did not have shingles and I have not had to have surgery on that one yet ). The ophthalmologist I talked to for a second opinion did not do laser and said some ophthalmologist are just trying to recoup the money they paid for the machine. Mine was also an extra $1500, which I had taken out of my paycheck through my HSA to reduce the cost a bit.
I found the following article outlines the methods, pros and cons of both types of surgery. http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/laser-cataract-surgery.htm