Premium Cataract Surgery

An opportunity to correct your glasses prescription

What is Premium Cataract Surgery?

Premium Cataract Surgery can be used not only to improve the clarity of your vision, but also to decrease or eliminate your dependency on glasses for both distance and near vision. The main difference compared to standard cataract surgery is the type of lens implant used. With standard cataract surgery, patients receive a monofocal lens implant. These lenses have a single focus point. This mean patient can be glasses free for only distance vision or near vision but not both. However, Premium Cataract Surgery uses advanced multifocal lenses which have the potential to make you glasses-free for both distance and near vision. In addition, Dr Arbabi also offers laser cataract surgery (called Femtosecond Laser Assisted Cataract Surgery). In both procedures, an ultrasonic device is used to remove the natural crystalline lens and replace this with an advanced artificial lens.

Comprehensive cataract assessment

When you come to see Dr. Arbabi, he will perform a full and comprehensive assessment of your eyes as well your hobbies and activities to give you a personalised treatment plan that best suits you. In the clinic you may receive the following assessment:

Full examination

Full examination of the front and the back of the eye to ensure cataract is the only reason causing your poor vision.

Biometry of the eye

This is a special scan that measures many different components of your eyes. This is essential to deciding the size of the lens implant.

Specular microscopy

This measures how many cells your cornea has. If you had less than the expected number of cells for your age, then special precautions are necessary to decrease the chance of you developing any problems with your cornea after the surgery.

Tomography

This measures the cornea and accurately assess the types of astigmatism. This help us determine if you would benefit from a toric lens implant

OCT scan

OCT scan of the macular (back of the eye) if required.

Tonometry

Measuring your eye pressures to ensure you are not at increased risk of getting glaucoma.

Am I suitable for premium cataract surgery?

Take our online suitability test

1 Min. Assessment

Most people with cataracts are suitable to have premium lens implants. When you come to see Dr. Arbabi, he will perform a full and comprehensive assessment of your eye as well as your hobbies and activities to give you a tailored and personalised treatment plan that best suits you.

Following the assessment Dr. Arbabi will have a full discussion of available treatment options and ensure you understand the risks and benefits of these options. Here we will also discuss what type of lens implants would best suit you and your lifestyle. We will discuss the standard lenses, trifocal and extended depth of focus lens implants. Dr. Arbabi will recommend a lens implant that best suits your lifestyle and your priorities for being independent from glasses.

Premium lens implant technology

Dr. Arbabi has access to a full range of cutting-edge lens technologies from leading manufactures such as Zeiss, Alcon and Johnson & Johnson. This means you can receive highly individualised care and recommendations for the best lens implant for your lifestyle and your eyes. All of Dr. Arbabi’s lenses have a UV filter built in for added protection.

There are three main types of lens implants:

Trifocal multifocal lens

The Trifocal multifocal lenses have the potential to help you see clearly without glasses, whether for distance (driving, playing golf, watching TV), intermediate (computer work), or near vision (reading). Ninety-five percent of patients with trifocal lenses do not need glasses for near or distance vision. One of the main downsides of these lenses compared to standard monofocal lenses, which you will read about below, is that they are more likely to cause glare and haloes and therefore more likely to compromise night-time driving vision. Most glare and haloes will spontaneously resolve or improve significantly or can be treated. Rarely, these symptoms can be very troublesome and permeant and can make some tasks such as driving at night time very difficult or impossible. Therefore there is a small risk (usually about 2%) that you may require further surgery to exchange the lens to a standard monofocal lens.

Extended depth of focus (EDOF) lenses

These lenses give very good distance vision (driving, playing golf, watching TV) and intermediate vision (computer work) but you are more likely to require glasses for reading. These lenses are better suited to outdoor people and those who enjoy activities that require far distance vision such as playing golf, watching football matches or driving a lot at night. The main benefit of these lenses over the trifocal lenses is they are less likely to give glare and halo symptoms or give you problems with driving at night. The down side of these lenses is you are more likely to need glasses for reading compared to trifocal lenses. Thirty percent of patients with EDOF lenses may require glasses for reading small print.

Standard Monofocal lenses

These lenses can only correct the vision for either near or distance. If you opt to correct your distance vision, then you will always need glasses for all near work. Compared to Multifocal and EDOF lenses they are less likely to cause glare or halos symptoms.

How is cataract surgery performed?

The cataract operation is carried out as a day case procedure which means you can go home straight after the surgery. Dr. Arbabi performs over 99.9% of cases using only eye drops to numb the eye. There’s no need to use any injection or general anaesthetic.

The cataract is removed using an advanced ultrasonic machine called phacoemulsification which breaks the lens into very small pieces and removes it through a keyhole (2-3mm) incision.

The operation generally takes about 20 minutes on average but Dr. Arbabi can complete it in about 7-10 minutes. He routinely performs 25 cataract surgeries a day which is one of the highest daily numbers in the UK. He will discuss the risks and benefits of doing the surgery in both eyes at the same time or doing them on different days

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What to Expect

On the Day of Your Treatment

1. Warm welcome

You will meet with Dr. Arbabi who will review your clinical measurements, examine you and make you feel at ease.

2. Ensuring you are comfortable

Local anaesthetics eye drops will be instilled in your eyes to ensure they are completely numb and comfortable throughout the procedure.

3. Cataract surgery

The ultrasonic machine removes the cataract through a keyhole (2-3mm) incision and the new lens will be implanted inside the same membrane which was holding your own lens. You should soon be ready to see the world in all its glory.

After the Treatment

1. What to Expect

It is not unusual for your eyes to feel slightly gritty and light sensitive after the procedure, but this will quickly subside, and the eye should feel better by the next day.

2. Aftercare drops and advice

You will be given your aftercare drops and advice. You will be asked to wear a pair of sunglasses when making your way back to home and to stop rubbing your eye for at least one week. Avoid make up on face for one week and on your eyes for two weeks.

3. The future

You will be seen in clinic within a week. You can expect to return to most normal activities within one week. You may need a period of time before the brain can fully adapt to the new multifocal lenses. As part of Dr. Arbabi’s unique service, you will be given his personal phone number so you can call or WhatsApp him directly if you had any concern or wanted to discuss anything about your procedure.

Dr Arbabi is a very kind, compassionate and highly recommended surgeon. He really puts patients at ease and help you through every step of your journey towards a better sight

More information

Premium Cataract Surgery: Clear vision without glasses or contact lenses

What are the risks of cataract surgery?

Cataract surgery is one of the most common operations world-wide with a very high success rate. However, like any other operation there are some risks associated with the surgery, such as:

Risk of permanent loss of vision in one eye after cataract surgery is about in 1 in 1000. The chance of this happening in both eyes is exceedingly rare and estimated to be around 1 in 12 million.
There is a 1 in 500 chance that you may need a repeat surgery to correct any problems.
There is 1 in 100 chance of developing other minor issues that may require further treatments with eyes drops.
With multifocal/trifocal lenses there is a higher risk of getting glare and haloes after surgery and this may affect certain tasks, particularly driving at nighttime. The glare and halos are mild in most cases and resolve with time but rarely they may persist or even require exchange of your implant if it continues to give you significant problems.
A small number of patients may experience blurry vision or difficulty with glare months or years after surgery. This is because, in a small number of patients, the capsule membrane of the eye can thicken (called posterior capsular opacification). This is easily treated in the clinic by a procedure called YAG laser capsulotomy. Following this, patients can expect their sight to return to normal within one or 2 days.
A small number of patients will still need to have glasses after surgery even if they had multifocal lenses. However, if this is the case, Dr. Arbabi will discuss the option to make you glasses free by other procedures such as LASIK. It is important you realise there’s no guarantee you will be glasses free.

What are alternative options?

Cataract surgery is the only effective treatment to deal with cataract symptoms. If you don’t have any significant symptoms, then you may want to wait and have surgery in the future if symptoms are worse or if you struggle with day-to-day activities.

Which lens implants suit me best?

Click here to see above about different types of lens implants.

Complex Cataract surgery

Some patients have other pre-existing eye conditions which make cataract surgery particularly challenging and therefore needs a very personalised and tailored approach to deal with the cataract in the safest manner.

These conditions include Fuchs endothelial dystrophy, radial keratotomy, previous injury to the eye or taking tablets such as Doxazocin and Tamsulosin. As a surgeon who does corneal transplant and reconstructive eye surgery, Dr. Arbabi often gets referral from other surgeons to do complex cases. Also being a proficient surgeon who routinely performs 25 cases in a day (the average consultant performs 10 to 12 cases), Dr. Arbabi has ample experience in dealing with these complex and challenging cases.

Discover the freedom from glasses or contact lenses

Call us on +971 2 635 6161

Email us on Contactusad@Moorfields.ae