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Cataract Presentation (Video)

Timothy Root, MD
45 Comments

This video-rich presentation focuses on cataracts, the history of surgery, and modern implants used today. Neat stuff!

Screenshots from this lecture:
(comments below)

Eye Model
Using this eye model, I show how the normally clear lens can turn cloudy. This occurs because of UV light, oxidation reactions, and the accumulation of water insoluble proteins that cause the tissue to opacify.
The lens/cataract sits immediately underneath or behind the iris (the colored part of the eye). Normally, you can’t see a cataract externally because the inner eye is dark … all you can see is the black pupil.
Cloudy Cataract
By shining a bright light into the eye, we can see that the cataract lights up. This cataract is turning brown and glows like muddy water.
Ancient Egypt
We believe that cataract surgery first began in ancient Egypt.
Spitting in eye
The Egyptian surgeon would chew on an opiate concoction, and spit this anesthetic mixture into the eye of his patient.
Couching Cataract
Couching is when the surgeon pushes on the cataract lens with a needle. Eventually, the supporting zonule “springs” will break, and the lens falls into the bottom of the eye.
Spitfire
During World War II, fighter pilots had pieces of Plexiglas shrapnel lodge inside the eye. Amazingly, this plastic didn’t become inflamed or cause infection, so modern lens implants were considered.
Intracapsular cataract surgery
Early cataract surgery was somewhat barbaric, requiring large incisions and removal of the cataract in one giant piece. It was also hard to find a place to insert the new implant that wouldn’t cause damage to the delicate inner structures of the eye.
Lens loupes
One great advance in surgery was the refinement of the surgical microscope. Most surgeries prior were used with magnified lens loupes like you see here.
MM candy cataract layers
The second great advance in surgery was the recognition that the cataract/lens has three layers like a peanut M&M candy.
Hypermature cataract layers
In this hypermature cataract, you can see that the cortex (the chocolate of the cataract) has liquefied and turned white. The inner nucleus (the peanut of the cataract) has gotten very hard and sunken to the bottom of the capsule (the outer candy shell).
Lens insertion
After removing the inner nucleus and cortex of the original cataract, we now have a capsular “bag” with a hole in the front. This is like a little basket, and we can put our new foldable implants directly into this little pocket.
Lens optic and haptic
Modern implants are made of flexible acrylic plastic. They have a central “optic” and little arms called “haptics” that act as springs to center the implant and hold it in place.
Astigmatism axis
One of the great challenges with vision is astigmatism. It is easy to fix astigmatism with glasses, as we grind the correction directly into the glass and make sure it offsets the eye’s refractive error.
Toric Implant in eye
New “toric implants” can fix astigmatism as well. After placing the implant in the eye, I spin it so that is perfectly offsets your natural astigmatism.
Presbyopia Description
One difficulty we have as we get older is the inability to focus at near. We need “cheater glasses” after age 40, and our dependence upon them increases with age. After normal cataract surgery, everyone needs cheaters … but it would be nice if we could make an implant that focusses at both distance and near. We can look at underwater creatures for clues to making this technology possible.
Fish can focus at near, despite having rock-hard lenses in their eyes (very similar to our hard plastic implants) by moving their lens forward and backward. This focuses just like a telescope.
CrystaLens
There is an implant now that does the same thing. The Crystalens implant has hinges in it that allow the implant rotate forward and backwards. This does help somewhat with distance and near vision, but I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by the results.
Four Eyed Fish
The anablep, a South American fish can give us some ideas. This fish is also called the “four-eyed fish” because it swims at the surface of the water, with half its eyes out of the water. This allows the fish to see predators from above, and food below. That’s because this fish has a bifocal built into its eye. Thus, it has a “multifocal lens” inside the eye.
Restor Lens
The Restor lens is an implant we use these days. This implant has concentric rings that alternate between distance and near focus. This multi-focal lens gives patients some near vision and distance vision, potentially without the need for glasses at all. There are some tradeoffs with contrast sensitivity and mild halos, but if you screen your patients carefully, most people like it.
IOL cataract lens options
To conclude, surgery has improved over the past century, and implant technology has given our patients many options.
Timothy Root, MD

Dr. Timothy Root is a practicing ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon in Daytona Beach, Florida. His books, video lectures, and training resources can be found at www.TimRoot.com

45 Comments

  1. Freaking amazing talk! I especially liked the fish cataracts section. i never knew that!

    Reply

  2. Really simple and informative lecture ,waiting for more great lecture as this one 🙂
    keep it up

    Reply
  3. Pankaj Agarwal says:

    Dear Tim,

    Excellent work. Indeed highly appreciable. You have really put a lot of hard work in it.

    Pankaj

    Reply
  4. Gustavo Sánchez says:

    Dear Dr. Tim,

    Great video, I will use it to explain my patients about cataracts. Great videos, thanks so much.

    Reply
  6. dr vasudha damle says:

    good one but showing prelimanary stages. if we can show details of phaco and complicated phacos it will be very useful. thank u.

    Reply

  7. Dear Dr.Tim

    your presentation is applaudable and original

    Please keep it up

    Srinivasan
    Pondicherry, INDIA

    Reply

  8. excellent work
    excellent lecture
    simplified with precious information
    it’s really hard to forget

    Reply

  9. Fantastic explanation !!! I love all your videos!!

    Reply

  10. well done
    excellent work

    Reply

  12. Its so nice and simple keep it up u r so good i like it 🙂

    Reply
  15. philantoo says:

    Tsara be
    Excellent video.
    Thanks.

    Reply

  16. Love the video! Really really cool!!!

    Reply
  17. dr k ramamurthy says:

    very good video

    Reply

  18. u r awesome,i love the way u teach
    may god grant ur all good wishes

    Reply
  19. Dr Junaid, CEO Saba Deseret Eye Hospital Baffa Pakistan says:

    great work, simple and easy

    Reply
  20. kathleen baer says:

    hi, what a wonderful and well done resource. i am a new medical coder with an upcoming interview at Mass Eye & Ear. i feel so much more confident going into the interview with all i have gained from your video tutorials. thanks a bunch. kathy baer

    Reply

  21. Hope I had a teacher like you 🙂 you are freakin’ awesome!

    Reply

  22. I am an ophthalmologist and I absolutely enjoyed this brilliant piece of work. Your students are a lucky lot!

    Reply

  23. Fantastic!!! Could u please demonstrate how an iris shadow is formed in immature cataracts??

    Reply
  24. TzengShihHao says:

    Good video! Thanks.

    Reply

  25. this is very useful vidios for worker of prevention of blindness.
    Tajammal Hussain,
    ophthalmic technecion,
    i/C,BHU,Hawagali,
    Mansehra,PAKISTAN.

    Reply

  26. thanks for useful lectures

    Reply
  27. Butterfly says:

    Your videos are a masterpiece.

    I pray ALlah that to bless you and give you all the best

    Reply
  28. langat christopher says:

    Thanks alot Doc.
    Tell us also the possible solutions to PCO and the dangers of
    the rupture of posterior capsule of the crystalline lens during CAT Sx.

    Reply

  29. My mom is to have this surgery and I did not know what to expect.But now I know how the procedure will work out and I hope she makes it.

    Reply

  30. ridiculously good video. I hope you copyrighted this. really cool info presented in a delightfully interesting manner

    Reply

  31. i would like to congratulate you
    you are a magician
    please keep doing this
    this is the best resourse for a begginer
    my suggestion is to upload the 10 basic lectures in HD format
    so that we can see them in their full glory

    Reply
  32. aniket wankhede says:

    awesome videos….it wud be more helpful if these video is more in detail…thanks a lot for your efforts..

    Reply

  33. Fantastic lecture, thanks a lot.

    Reply
  34. Dr.Rizwan says:

    Can you upload more videos please?

    Reply

  35. OMG !!!
    I just love your videos and am actually learning a lot … keep it up Dr / ur students are very very lucky !!!!!!

    thank you !

    Reply

  36. AWESOME VEDIO
    K.G.M.U.-LUCKNOW, INDIA

    Reply
  37. reham abdelhamed says:

    thanks alot . it is so helpful learn alot u r so creative in ur explaination it does help alot .

    Reply

  38. I’m so in love with your teaching skills.

    Reply
  39. vikas khullar says:

    great video! really helps.

    Reply

  40. Great work! I find opthalmology pretty boring. Thanks for making it so yummy. :p

    Reply

  42. Thank you for this amazing video. Really helped clear my concepts!

    Reply

  43. Thank you. I like you!!!!!

    Reply
  45. supriya patil says:

    Really amazing video . Great compilation of anatomy , diesease and treatment options . Im a lecturer by profession . Made my job easier to teach students . Keep sharing !!!!

    Reply

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