Every eye is unique. I specialise in cataract surgery customised for every patient. Maximise vision quality and minimise your need for glasses with Eyesite’s customised cataract surgery provided at centres of surgical excellence in central and north London.
To make an appointment call my office on 020 8951 1951 or fill in our enquiry form.
Cataract is a clouding of the natural lens of the eye. In this article, I explain the causes and symptoms of cataract and how I use ultra-small incision technology to remove the cataract and replace it with an advanced lens implant ...Read more about understanding cataract >>
To enjoy the best results from your cataract surgery, it must be customised for your eyes. Here I explain how I use advanced lens implant technology to achieve maximum quality of vision and minimum need for reading and distance glasses ...Read more about customised cataract surgery >>
My patients describe their experience of cataract eye surgery and how it has improved their lives ...Read more from my patients >>
I perform cataract surgery at centres of surgical excellence in central and north London with superb equipment, specialist nurses and technicians and high surgical volumes ...Read more about our cataract surgery locations >>
I strive to make your cataract surgery as convenient and stress-free as possible. You are invited to read my detailed description of Eyesite's treatment process from your initial consultation, through surgery to discharge ...Read about Eyesite's approach to improving your cataract surgery experience >>
Treat yourself to Eyesite's premium, personal cataract surgery services. Dr Simon Levy is recognised as a cataract surgeon by all United Kingdom private medical insurance companies. If you do not have private insurance, Eyesite's all-inclusive fee covers the cost of the surgery and follow-up ...Read more about our cataract surgery fees >>
Eyesite's explanation of the miracle of normal sight, how focusing errors cause dependence on glasses and how to make sense of your glasses prescription ...Read more how your eyes work >>
Eye surgery specialists (ophthalmologists) perform cataract surgery to help patients with cataract see more clearly, by removing the natural lens of the eye which has become cloudy from cataract and replacing it with a special type of prosthesis known as a ‘lens implant’. Cataracts occur because the natural lens of the eye, which is important as it focuses light entering the eye onto the retina, looses its transparency and become opaque.
The new cataract surgical techniques used by Eyesite’s surgeon Dr Simon Levy have transformed the quality, safety and speed of cataract surgery. Older cataract surgery techniques, which required a large incision to be made into the wall of the eye followed by the manual removal of the opaque cataract lens and suturing of the cataract surgery incision with up to five sutures, have been entirely replaced by the extraordinary technology of ultra-small incision cataract surgery - known to ophthalmologists by its technical name of 'phacoemulsification'. Phacoemulsification makes it possible to remove the cloudy natural lens through an incision only 2.2mm wide and does not require any sutures. Associated with ultra-small incision phacoemulsification technology, modern artificial intraocular lens implants have become extremely sophisticated beginning with the amazing fact that it is possible to inject them into the eye through an opening which is only 2.2mm wide! The quality of vision provided by modern lens implants is remarkably improved compared to older models - for example it is possible to fully correct any focusing defect existing prior to the cataract surgery such as short or long sight, astigmatism and dependence on reading glasses. 'Aspheric' lens implants correct the commonest wavefront abnormality of the eye which is known as 'spherical aberrration'.
Eye medicine and surgery (together known as ophthalmology) is at the forefront of the extraordinary advance in medicine that has transformed the lives of millions around the world. These days there are a huge range of eye treatments available for the entire spectrum of eye problems and disease including cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and every other cause of blurred, distorted and cloudy vision. Many of these eye treatments were not available at all when this website's author began eye surgery training - in 1985! In fact some eye treatments had not even been thought of at the time. For example the use of laser eye surgery to perform refractive surgical procedures such as Lasik, Lasek and Epi-Lasik and radio frequency devices designed for techniques such as conductive keratoplasty was completely unknown at that time.
Many eye treatments using eye lasers are done for non-refractive conditions. For example the condition known as 'secondary cataract' is treated with a device known as a 'YAG laser'. Diabetic retinal eye disease is treated with a different specialist eye laser called an 'argon laser'. YAG and Argon lasers have transformed the lives of tens of millions of people since they were introduced. Ophthalmologists specialising in treating diabetic retinopathy (eye disease) intervene in the disease using the Argon laser as well as other technologies such as injecting the monoclonal antibodies Lucentis and Avastin to stop diabetic eye disease in its tracks. retina surgeons use specialist ultra-microscopic instruments to reach the vitreous gel and retina at the back of the eye and perform extraordinarily delicate manipulations to treat pathologies such as floaters, retina holes and detachments, to repair damage from trauma and cut away the scar tissue that forms in severe diabetic retinopathy.
Macular degeneration is more accurately known as 'age-related macular degeneration'. Its cause is not clearly understood but relevant factors include exposure to ultraviolet light in sunshine, smoking (which is extremely toxic to the eye as it is to the rest of the body) and unfortunately also a genetic pre-disposition in some individuals. Macular degeneration is more common in some societies than others - and the differences between different countries do not relate entirely to differences in lifespan in different societies; obviously countries in which lifespan is longer will have more patients with macular degeneration but there are other factors, not understood at present, as well.. By the way, macular degeneration is not normally caused by deficiencies in diet or vitamins. Although vitamin supplementation and eating green vegetables can be a useful strategy to slow the progress of dry macular degeneration (see below) there is no evidence that the causation of macular degeneration relates to poor diet, at least in the vast majority of patients.
The first sign of a problem caused by macular degeneration is often distorted vision (for example straight lines may appear to be kinked or curved) and a struggle to focus in on detail, even if wearing glasses or contact lenses. In the wet type of macular degeneration (see below) loss of vision and blurring may be sudden in onset. In the dry type of macular degeneration the process is usually much more gradual.
The repertoire of surgery performed for eyes includes operations on every portion of this small but essential organ. Examples include cataract surgery, glaucoma surgery, refractive surgery and corneal surgery. Needless to say, all these treatments are carried out by ophthalmologists who have been intensively trained in the intricate surgical techniques required to operate successfully on the eye's delicate and frail internal structures.
When Eyesite’s surgeon Dr Simon Levy began training in ophthalmology in 1985 general anaesthesia (sleeping anaesthesia) was routinely used as the principle type of anaesthetic for eye surgery. However the risks (admittedly very small) and the expense (in modern healthcare terms considerable) of general anaesthesia have led to it being replaced by two forms of local anaesthetic - injection and topical. Topical anaesthesia (the use of powerful anaesthetic eye drops which numb the eye and take away any sensation of pain) are applied in either the anaesthetic or operating rooms (operating theatre). Injection anaesthetics (frequently done with the 'sub-tenons' approach which is safer than the older methods of 'peri-bulbar' or retro-bulbar' methods that were formally common) may be administered either in the operating theatre using an operating microscope or sometimes by the anaesthetist in the anaesthetic room whilst the patient is waiting to be taken through for his or her eye surgery.
A consultant laser eye surgeon such as Eyesite surgeon Dr Simon Levy carries out operations on the cornea of the eye to change its shape and so improve visual focus. The cornea is the transparent dome-shaped front window of the eye, covering the eye's iris, pupil, anterior chamber and lens. Behind the lens lies the jelly of the eye (vitreous humour) and retina. Although it is commonly thought that the natural lens inside the eye is the principle focusing lens of the eye, in fact this is a misunderstanding. The natural lens of the eye is significant - it supplies about one quarter of the eye's total focusing power and is of paramount importance for changing the focus of the eye from distance to near. However the cornea, the eye's front window, is in fact a more powerful focusing lens than the natural lens inside the eye and remarkably supplies about three quarters of the eye's total focusing power. Laser eye surgery performed by a refractive surgeon using Lasik, Lasek or Epi-Lasik, has the aim of fixing poor vision and focus by changing the precise contour of the cornea and so changing the overall focus of the eye.
Cataracts can affect one or both eyes although it is uncommon, if you have a cataract in only one eye, to not eventually develop a similar cataract in the other eye. Cataracts impair vision causing blurring, glare and light sensitivity, loss of colour vision and sometimes rare problems such as a specific type of double vision arising from only one eye known as ‘monocular diplopia’.
Cataracts usually occur in elderly people, but no age group is immune and they can occur in children and younger people from the age of twenty until sixty - age groups which most people do not automatically associate with cataract formation.
The problem with cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye which prevents light from passing fully through the eye's natural lens to the retina at the back of the eye. Various types of clouding can occur - splits, channels and ravines that fill with water, deposits of proteins sometimes coloured spectacularly (so called 'christmas tree' cataract) and the development of an opaque layer at the back of the lens which is known by ophthalmologists (eye surgeons) as a 'posterior subcapsular lens opacity'. However by far the commonest type of cataract and the type most associated with older patients and generalised aging (the author tells his patients that cataract is usually just a manifestation of getting older like having grey hair) is a brown discolouration of the eye's lens which is known by ophthalmologists as 'nuclear sclerosis'. When the patients is examined by the eye doctor in clinic using an instrument called a slit lamp, the natural lens of the eye appears discoloured and brown.
The more opaque the lens is, the worse a person's eyesight will become. The only cure for cataract is to have an operation. Potions, lotions, medicines, tablets and voodoo have no affect!