Question:
I am 39 years old and have been myopic most of my life, about -3.00
both eyes, and have comfortably worn glasses. I had surgery for
posterior subcapsular cataract in one eye 4 months ago, mainly to
correct a nighttime glare problem that worsened after vitrectomy
surgery (for floaters) in that eye a year previously. At the cataract
surgery I was corrected for distance.
After the cataract surgery, nightttime glare in that eye seemed to
increase. At first it was very bad, but after a couple months it
improved some, but leveled out to a degree which was worse than before
the lens implantation. A week ago I had YAG capsulotomy to open the
rear of the lens capsule, to hopefully reduce this glare (I had a nick
in the capsule with some wrinkling which could have been
contributing). Now the glare seems even worse, with big spikes of
light emanating from the center of my vision around car headlights and
streetlights and such.
All the doctors I've seen say my corneas are fine. The lens of course
is new and clear, and the back of the capsule is now open. I have
some Krukenberg's spindles, but I have been told those are optically
insignificant. The only other thing which has been suggested as a
possible cause of the glare is residual vitreous from the vitrectomy.
The capsulotomy surgeon saw some significant vitreous left, and indeed
I have been bothered by this remaining vitreous during the day.
So a couple of questions:
Do other patients ever experience an *increase* in glare following
cataract surgery? Is 4 months enough time for the eye to stabilize
after this surgery? Any other ideas about possible causes?
Does anyone have experience with residual vitreous causing glare like
I have?
Finally, I have been wearing an eyepatch over the operated eye ever
since the cataract surgery, so as to not have to deal with the glare
as I wait for things to improve. My retinal surgeon warned me
prolonged use of an eyepatch could lead to lazy eye, or that eye
losing ability to track with the other. Is that a scare story or is
there truth to that? He also said the eyepatch could prevent oxygen
from getting to the eye, which would be a bad thing. But half the
time my eyepatch is halfway off, it never forms a tight seal, and my
eyelid is always open underneath the patch. Should I be concerned?
Answer:
IMy mom and MIL both have serious glare problems since they had cataract
surgery, and it hasn't improved in 10 years. My mom had the older
'stitchful' surgery, and I don't know what my MIL had. My mom's quack
says that's normal. I think she should go to a different quack
