Cataract surgery is usually done under local anesthesia. It lasts between 45 minutes and 1 hour and requires 2 nights of hospitalization.
Cataract surgery is done under a microscope and must imperatively take place in a sterile surgical environment.
The intervention is done in 2 steps:
The extraction of the diseased lens. The surgeon begins the procedure by opening the lens capsule to remove the opaque lens. To do this, he makes a small incision of 3 mm through which he passes an ultrasound probe. This probe breaks up the lens and destroys it, and a microprobe sucks up the fragments. The capsule of the lens (the envelope) must be left in place to allow for the insertion of the new lens.
The implantation of the new lens. Once the diseased lens has been removed, the surgeon proceeds to the implantation of the replacement lens. Through the small incision that has already been made, he places the synthetic lens in the capsular bag behind the pupil.