Lens Regeneration After Cataract Surgery Might Be Possible
Cataract surgery has advanced tremendously over the past two decades. The introduction of medical grade lasers into this procedure took it from a major operating room ordeal to an outpatient undertaking that involves no overnight hospital stay. What’s more, most patients find they are back at their normal routines seeing better than they have in years within a few days. The current procedure to correct cataracts involves using a laser to gently remove the eye’s damaged natural lens. This lens is then replaced with a man-made design. While also highly advanced, man-made lenses are not always perfect. Prescriptions, for example, can be off slightly and other issues may arise with the synthetic products. But, what if people were able to regenerate their own natural lenses? Could that advance cataract surgery even further? Those are precisely the kinds of questions a group of researchers set out to answer recently. They did, as it turns out, manage to successfully help infants with damag...