Cataract surgery in London, Herts & Kent what to expect, aftercare & cost

The cataract treatment process will begin with a consultation with your surgeon, typically 1-4 weeks before your surgery. During this meeting, your consultant will perform specialist diagnostic tests on your eye and you’ll discuss lens choice.

We recommend taking at least two days off work for the surgery itself and recovery time (most people spend about 2.5 hours at the clinic on the day). We suggest bringing sunglasses for your journey home after surgery. Please don’t wear any eye make up.

You may want to bring someone along to help you get home after the surgery, as your vision will remain blurry for up to 72 hours afterwards. You should not drive immediately after surgery, so should either arrange a lift from someone, use public transport or get a taxi home.

When you’ve arrived at the clinic before surgery, you’ll be given some eye drops to dilate your pupil. A nurse will then discuss aftercare with you so you can be confident in how best to look after your eye following surgery.

Then you’ll be given more eye drops, this time a local anaesthetic to minimise pain during the procedure. The surgery typically only takes 10-15 minutes per eye to perform.

During the procedure, a small cut is made in the cornea, either using a surgical blade or a femtosecond laser. A hole is made in the capsule bag and the cataract broken up into tiny pieces to remove it. The new intraocular lens is then implanted through ultra-precise keyhole surgery. After surgery, you’ll be able to rest in our relaxation suite for 30-45 minutes.

You’ll have your eyes checked a final time before you go home. You’ll also be given some eye drops and instructions about how often to use them and for how long. Your eyes will feel tired and gritty for the remainder of the day, so do stay at home and rest. Your vision will be slightly misty for up to 72 hours after surgery, but you may notice a dramatic improvement in your sight immediately.

In the first couple of days post-surgery, you’re likely to experience some or all of the following:

1. Hazy vision; this is because your pupil will remain dilated for up to 48 hours after surgery
2. Sensitivity to light; again this is due to your dilated pupils
3. Haloes around light; this will normally settle before long
4. A gritty sensation, similar to the feeling of having a grain of sand stuck in the eye. You should not feel severe pain
5. A mild ache in your eye
6. Pinkish colouring to your eye, or possibly some bright red localised bruising, which is more likely if you’re taking aspirin or warfarin

Your pupil will return to its normal size after about two days and this will dramatically improve your overall vision.

Cataract surgery has extremely high success rates. At OCL Vision we have serious complication rates lower than 0.2% and an infection rate of 0% due to our high standards of care and surgery always being performed by a consultant.

Find out more about what happens after cataract surgery, and which symptoms aren’t normal.