Operation

The lens is located immediately behind the pupil and consists of several parts. In the centre there is the core which becomes opaque with increasing age. There is a soft skin which lies around it. The whole lens is surrounded by the lens capsule. The lens capsule is hung up by elastic fibres, the zonula fibres, from the ciliary body of the eye behind the iris.

Today during the cataract operation the entire opaque lens is mainly no longer removed from the eye, and the lens capsule is if possible left in the eye. In the case of the most frequent form of the cataract operation the lens capsule is opened circularly by means of a small incision, the harder lens core is liquefied by ultra sound waves and subsequently sucked out together with the softer lens skin.

Instead of the natural lens an intraocular lens is then implanted into the eye.

In order to insert the artificial lens as well as the necessary operation instruments into the eye, a small corneal incision is made, which closes again after the operation without any artificial stitches.