Poor Near Vision after Cataract Surgery

Question: I had cataract surgery on both eyes two months ago and my near vision is now poor. Before surgery my close up vision was extraordinary. I could read the smallest lettering and see very fine detail. My distance vision was fair. I did not wear glasses for distance vision except at night, driving. I did explain to the cataract surgeon that I did not want to lose the close up vision because 80% of what I do requires excellent close up capability. Since my cataract surgery I cannot see anything smaller than a quarter inch in height and so essentially need glasses for everything I do.  My question is can the cataract surgery be reversed to give you your original sight back or am I stuck being so handicapped. Can additional surgery be performed to give me both distance and close up vision?

Answer: It is possible that as the cataracts progressed prior to your cataract surgery you became progressively more nearsighted enabling you to read and see clearly up close. Once the proper lens implant calculations were made and your surgery was performed you achieved the appropriate distance correction and thus were no longer nearsighted or able to see up close. This is unfortunate if most of your daily activities are requiring excellent near vision correction. There are a number of choices and options that can discuss with your Cataract Surgeon. First of course is that you can just wear glasses-which does not seem to be a good choice for you. Second, you can explore whether a monovision correction allowing one eye to be corrected for near, might be appropriate. This can be demonstrated by placing a contact lens in one eye to approximate the near vision. If it is satisfactory, then there are two possible ways to achieve the monovision correction with the lens implants. One way is to see if your Cataract Surgeon cans perform a lens implant exchange to adjust the power of the lens. The other is to have LASIK or some other Corneal Laser Eye Surgery to achieve the monovision correction in the non dominant eye. All of these options really depend on the results of a thorough consultation and examination to really determine exactly what is possible and with what potential result.

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