{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/what-are-the-cataract-surgery-side-effects-and-risks-vp\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/what-are-the-cataract-surgery-side-effects-and-risks-vp\/","headline":"What are the cataract surgery side effects and risks?","name":"What are the cataract surgery side effects and risks?","description":"In an interview, Alex Shortt discusses the cataract surgery side effects and risks including loss of vision, imperfect results and minor complications.","datePublished":"2019-10-18","dateModified":"2020-08-13","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/author\/alex-shortt\/#Person","name":"Alex Shortt","url":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/author\/alex-shortt\/","identifier":4667,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6afb756e1dc43ed28773098aff9af37d7e16c92671dbd22f5a9bbcb21063c139?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6afb756e1dc43ed28773098aff9af37d7e16c92671dbd22f5a9bbcb21063c139?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Alex Shortt","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/alex-shortt-logo-white-600x140-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/alex-shortt-logo-white-600x140-1.png","width":600,"height":140}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/What-are-cataract-surgery-risks-alex-shortt-london.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/What-are-cataract-surgery-risks-alex-shortt-london.jpg","height":450,"width":800},"url":"https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/what-are-the-cataract-surgery-side-effects-and-risks-vp\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI","name":"What are the cataract surgery side effects and risks?","description":"In this video, Alex Shortt discusses the risks of cataract surgery. It is crucial that both patient and surgeon sit down and talk through risks and possible side effects before the surgery. The risk of losing significant vision in one of your eyes is one in 10,000 cataract operations. For more information on cataract surgery, please visit our website at https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/cataract\/\n\nMy website: https:\/\/www.alexshortt.co.uk\/\nTwitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/Alex_Shortt\nFacebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlexShorttConsultant","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/9yNXEe11OSI\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/9yNXEe11OSI\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/9yNXEe11OSI\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/9yNXEe11OSI\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/9yNXEe11OSI\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2019-01-02T16:10:11+00:00","duration":"PT3M8S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9yNXEe11OSI","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCZUjyjYPfXKxV8WVHx7-rqA#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCZUjyjYPfXKxV8WVHx7-rqA","name":"Alex Shortt","description":"","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_lso6QF066XazZwtWqloc_izxh7N6G8qXGEkS7aPYOur9A=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":1900}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9yNXEe11OSI#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16}]},"about":["Cataract surgery"],"wordCount":720,"articleBody":"What are cataract surgery risks?Interview transcription:We asked Alex Shortt about cataract surgery risks.Interviewer: Every procedure has risks. What are the specific risks involved in cataract surgery?Alex Shortt:\u00a0It is important that your surgeon sits down with you face to face and explains the risks of cataract surgery, or this lens exchange surgery. Recently the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, which is our regulatory college which gives us our qualification as an ophthalmic surgeon, have gotten together a working group.That’s really helpful, both for patients, but also for us surgeons. They have gone through the risks of all these procedures, and have written a patient guide, and also a set of guidelines for us as surgeons about what we should be telling patients are the risks. And we have to follow those guidelines, and they are absolutely explicit about what the risks are.Loss of visionAnd what those guidelines say is that the risk of losing significant vision, of ending up nearly blind in one of your eyes is one in 10,000 operations. That’s incredibly small. The risk of it happening in both eyes is in the region of one in 12 million. So a very small risk, and that’s a catastrophic outcome.To put it in context for you, I’m likely to do about 10, maybe 20,000 cataract operations in my career. So what that means is that somewhere during my career, I will have one, or maybe two patients who lose a significant vision in one of their eyes. It hasn’t happened yet, but there is a potential for that to happen, and we have to be clear with patients on that.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearch for:\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRecent Posts\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Can I wear make-up before and after laser eye surgery?\u2019\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow long does laser eye surgery last?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSMILE v LASIK v PRK – What Are the Different Types ?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCan I get laser eye surgery?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA clear look into the types of laser eye surgery in London\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTake the eye surgery self-test to see if you qualifyNot everyone is a candidate for eye surgery. Find out if laser eye surgery could help you ditch your glasses and contact lenses by taking this fast quizTAKE FAST SUITABILITY QUIZImperfect resultsThe second thing that the Royal College of Ophthalmologists insists we tell patients is that in one in 500 operations, the vision isn’t quite right in one of the eyes. The vision is less than we expected it to be. Now in many of those cases, it can be rectified but would require some more treatment to correct the vision.Minor complicationsThere’s a whole host of minor complications that can arise from surgery including inflammation of the eye, dryness of the surface of the eye, gritty, sore eyes or high pressure in the eyes.But these are all treatable, especially if you’re being looked after individually by your consultant. You have access to him, and the ability to contact him and say, “look, my eyes are gritty and sore”, then they will see you, treat this, address it and it will go away. And it’s a minor inconvenience.And overall we group these, you know, extra course of eye drops, or a little bit of extra treatment into a 1% figure. So one in 100 people will need a little bit of treatment to sort out a minor complication after surgery.If you\u2019d like to know more about vision corrective surgery,\u00a0book a free initial screening\u00a0today and I will personally answer your questions. Alternatively, take our\u00a0free suitability quiz\u00a0to find out which treatment you are suitable for.Share This PostAbout the authorMr Alex J. Shortt | Consultant Ophthalmic SurgeonMB BCh MSc PhD FRCOphth PGDipCatRefI’m Alex Shortt, a highly trained academic researcher and Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon based in London\u2019s famous Harley Street medical district. I trained and worked as a consultant for 14 years at London\u2019s Moorfields Eye Hospital. I specialise in advanced technologies for correcting vision, including cataract surgery, implantable contact lenses and laser vision correction.Learn more about meGet a complimentary vision assessment todayComplete the form below to chat with a member of my team. Discover if you’re suitable for a life changing vision correction procedure\t\/* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.\t   We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. *\/    \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t        I consent to receive valuable and relevant e-mails\t\t\t\t\t\t                "}