Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:56:21.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Visual Rehabilitation for the Elderly Through Improved Surgical Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Bo Philipson
Affiliation:
Department of OpthalmologyThe Karolinska Institute, Stockholm

Extract

During the last decade, microsurgical improvements have developed extremely rapidly in eye surgery. The use of operating microscopes has opened this field to a wide range of technical innovations such as finger suture materials, more sophisticated instruments, and new implants. The result has been better rehabilitation of patients, whose vision was impaired by opacities in the refracting media of the eye. The most frequent cause of poor vision in the elderly is cataract, which is an opacification of the lens in the eye. Most people older than 70 years will have some cataract, with about 30% having opacities that markedly reduce visual acuity and often produce glare phenomena in at least one eye (see Figure 1). There is at present no medical treatment for cataract.

Type
Technology and Health Care for the Elderly
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Lydahl, E., & Philipson, B.Infrared radiation and cataract II—epidemiologic investigation of glass workers. Acta Ophthalmologica, 1984, 62, 976–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Sight Improving Surgery. Consensus Conference Statement. Spri and The Swedish Medical Research Council, November 1984, Stockholm.Google Scholar
3. Eckerlund I: Cost-effectiveness of intraocular lens implantation. Proceedings from the Swedish Concensus Development Conference on Sight Improving Surgery. Spri and the Swedish Medical Research Council, November 6–8, Stockholm, 1984.Google Scholar
4.Stark, W. J. et al. The FDA Report on Intraocular Lenses. Ophthalmology, 04 1983, 90(4), 311–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Petersen, B. P.Outcome of cataract surgery. Socioeconomic aspects. Acta Ophthalmologica, 1982, 60, 235242; 461–468.Google Scholar