I am a 72 year old female and I have cataracts. The ophthalmologist advised against cataract surgery because I only have one seeing eye. Is cataract surgery really that risky? What could go wrong?
woman, 78 years
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
The risks of cataract surgery are very small. The chance of a retinal detachment, as a result of which the eye can no longer see, is less than one in a thousand in a healthy eye. But with an eye that is not completely healthy, the chance of problems increases quickly. I don’t know what causes the blindness in the other eye, but it could very well be that your good eye has a significantly increased risk of problems. And because you only have one seeing eye, the consequences of surgery failure are of course dramatic. I understand your own ophthalmologist if he advises you not to take the risk. You could ask for a second opinion. I wouldn’t go ice cream overnight.
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