The human eye has over 2 million working parts proving how delicate it is and the care required to ensure proper functioning. Many people suffer from different eye problems that have led to them wearing glasses for better eye functioning. However, modern medicine is changing this, and correcting some conditions through surgeries is easy. Here are common surgeries when it comes to eyes.

Types of Eye Surgeries

There are different types of eye surgeries used to correct different defects. They include:

Cataract Surgery

What is a Cataract?

They are clouding the lens of your eye, which is naturally clear. Cataracts develop over time, slowly causing blurry vision and other symptoms. Light needs to pass through a clear lens for your eye to see. The lens then focuses light allowing the eye and brain to work together to process data into a picture. When you get a cataract over the lens, your eye will not focus the light similarly. As a result, you get blurry vision or vision loss depending on the size and location of the cataract. No need to worry, though, as well-trained eye surgeons in Adelaide can help regain vision.

Causes and Symptoms

Here are the various causes that speed up the formation of cataracts:

● Eye injuries 

● Exposure to the sun without protecting the eyes for a long time

● Steroids

● Diabetes

● Phenothiazine drugs such as chlorpromazine 

● Radiation treatment for your upper body

● Symptoms

● Double vision 

● Poor vision at night

● Blurry. foggy or filmy vision

● Eye sensitivity to bright lamps or sunlight

● Glare, especially when driving at night.

How is a Cataract Treated?

You only require a prescription for new glasses or contacts when your cataract is mild. But it's important to know they get worse with time and might require surgery to remove. Here are the most common surgeries doctors use to remove cataracts.

Cataract Surgery Types

1. Phacoemulsification Cataract Surgery

It's the most common process for cataracts. During surgery, the ophthalmologist makes a small incision in the eye to find the clouded lens. They then use high-frequency sound waves or lasers to break the lens into pieces. Finally, the specialist removes the fragments from the eye and inserts a new plastic lens.

2. Extracapsular Cataract Surgery

The specialist recommends this if the phacoemulsification method is not the best alternative. For instance, an advanced cataract could be too dense to break, so your doctor will do Extracapsular surgery. It will enable the specialist to make a bigger opening to remove the lens as one piece. After removal, they will then insert the other lens. 

LASIK Eye Surgery

LASIK surgery is common for the correction of vision issues. They include:

● Astigmatism is when the cornea flattens or curves disrupting the focus of near and distant vision.

● Hyperopia (Farsightedness) happens when you have a flat cornea or your eyeball is shorter than the average size. It allows light to focus behind the retina than on it, which causes far and near vision to become blurry.

● Myopia (Nearsightedness) occurs if your cornea bends too sharply or your eyeball is longer than normal. The light rays focus in front of the retina and blur distant vision.

What Happens During the Surgery?

The surgery is about 30 mins or less. First, the surgeon cuts a small hinged flap away from the front of your eye. Then fold the flap back to gain access to the part of the cornea to be shaped. The surgeon reshapes parts of your cornea through a programmed laser and removes a small corneal tissue with every pulse of the laser beam. 

After the cornea reshaping, they put the flap back into place, which heals without stitches. During the surgery, doctors ask you to focus on a light point to help fix the eye while the laser reshapes the cornea.

Enucleation and Evisceration

Enucleation is the type of surgery performed to treat tumours and remove eyes. In most cases, Adelaide's Oncology and Hematology departments also use it to treat retinoblastoma or Uveal Malignant melanoma.

Surgeons perform this surgery if the eye has a tumour. During the surgery, they remove the whole eye. The muscles and control eye movement are left intact and resewn to the artificial eyeball. 

Evisceration is the type of surgery in which surgeons remove the cornea and contents of the eye. Throughout the procedure, the scleral shell and eye muscles are left intact. The surgeons subsequently put the artificial implant into the scleral shell where the muscles are still attached.

The eye is a very important and delicate organ. Taking good care of it is crucial because it is prone to different conditions. Performing surgery on this organ is a challenging task for surgeons. Adelaide has top-notch specialists who can perform different eye surgeries to restore your vision.