Cataracts develop as part of the aging process, so everyone is at risk eventually. According to a recent article from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the risk factors include:

Advanced age;
Diabetes;
A family history of cataracts;
Extensive exposure to sunlight;
Smoking;
Obesity;
High blood pressure;
Previous eye injury or inflammation (swelling) in the eye;
Previous eye surgery;
Long-term use of steroid medication (especially combined use of oral and inhaled steroids).

If you have any of these risk factors, and your vision is not as clear as it once was, then you may be developing cataracts. Visit your local optometrist as the first port of call for an eye health check and refraction.

Cataracts are readily treatable with a local anaesthetic operation. Multi-focal implants are also available to restore both distance and near vision, reducing or eliminating your dependence on all glasses.

A new lens to help reading vision has received approval from the American Food & Drug Administration (FDA), according to manufacturers Bausch & Lomb, based at Rochester in New York state.

These lenses are inserted inside the eye during a procedure very similar to that used for cataract surgery. The natural lens is removed and replaced with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL). The traditional IOL has a fixed focus and is unable to replicate the natural flexibility of the young human lens that allows us to zoom in on near objects to have clear close vision, e.g. reading a newspaper print.

Accommodating lenses are designed to mimic the natural zoom ability to not only provide clear distance vision but also to restore good near vision. This loss of near vision with age is called ‘presbyopia‘ and affects 20 million people in the UK alone.

The Crystalens HD is designed for enhanced depth of focus and features something called “proprietary optical focus,” B&L stated in a press release. This optical ability is claimed to be capable of improving near vision without reducing distance or intermediate vision. In the research study from B&L, 125 eyes were implanted with the new Crystalens HD. These patients had a visually significant cataract (usually age related clouding of the lens inside the eye), less than 1 D of corneal astigmatism, and the potential for best corrected visual acuity of 20/25 or better in both eyes. Of this study population, four out of five patients (80%) had vision of J2 (equivalent to small ingredients lists on food packets) or better at 4 months. B&L said it plans to begin sending out the Crystalens HD in early July.

TECHNOLOGY that has become available over past two years means that reading vision problems can now be very effectively addressed through laser eye treatment. Although at present only a few clinics specialise in this area, it is the fasting growing section of the laser vision arena.

FOCUS Laser Vision specialises in the correction of loss of reading vision, either through advanced LASIK laser eye surgery or through the use of lenses inside the eye (IOLs)

Several approaches to LASIK are showing promise in the treatment of reading vision problems (presbyopia) for patients with otherwise normal distance vision, or long or short sight, according to studies presented at the 12th Winter Refractive Meeting of the ESCRS.

In research presented by Kenneth A Greenberg MD, all patients achieved good distance vision of 20/25 or better and were able to read telephone directory sized print, 12 months after undergoing customised LASIK treatments. The multicentre study involved 28 presbyopic long-sighted patients with an average age of 56 years.