I had my cataract surgery on June 19, 2007. Read here. I also posted a video of a cataract surgery here. The surgery removed my natural lens which had been clouded by the penta-fluoro carbon (C3F8) gas in the retina repair surgery. A new artificial lens was inserted to replace my natural lens. The only consolation reward I could think of was that my short-sightedness was reduced by half, as my doctor told me.

During the phacoemulsification procedure, the lens is removed but not the posterior lens capsule. It has to be left there to hold the new artificial lens. Not all lens cells can be completely removed. Some are left behind. Sometimes, the lens cells grow across the new lens. It is more likely to grow back if you are younger. Sometimes this happens in a few months after the cataract surgery, sometimes years. This is not a re-growth of cataract. It is the thickening of the back of the lens capsule. It is called the posterior lens capsular opacification. The picture shows the posterior capsular opacification on retroillumination.

Frequency-doubled Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12) laser with a wave length of 532nm is used to make a “hole” in part of the capsule to allow light to pass through the lens directly. This procedure is called YAG laser capsulotomy. The doctor aims the laser exactly onto the posterior lens capsule and fires very short pulses of laser to blast off the part of the capsule and make a small circle shaped area. This leaves some of the capsule intact to hold the lens. The very small part of the lens capsule which is cut away falls harmlessly inside the eye.

The laser capsulotomy is very quick and not painful at all. I only heard some clicking noise as the laser was working. My vision on my right eye became clear again immediately after the procedure. The only discomfort I had was when my doctor attached a contact lens onto my eye.