Friday Fun Fact - A Little Trivia about Cataract Surgery

Jul 20, 2012 @ 09:25 AM — by JoAnn DeRousse, COT

Tagged with: Mulqueeny Eye Centers St Louis Mo Sean P Mulqueeny Od St Louis Mo Andrew J Biondo Od St Louis Missouri Eye Care St Louis Missouri Cataract St Louis Missouri

Even though crude attempts at cataract surgery can be traced as far back as 29 AD, modern cataract procedures with lens replacement have been made possible thanks to the Second World War.

An ophthalmic surgeon in London, Sir Harold Ridley, was asked by his students why surgeons never replaced the extracted lens during cataract surgery. The answer was that the body rejected most materials that were used in an attempt to replace the lens.

It was at that point he began paying attention to pilots who came back from their missions in WWII with little pieces of perspex in their eye (shattered screens of the planes they were flying in). There seemed to be no rejection of the pieces of acrylic/plastic found in their eyes. This material was later modified and further developed into the artificial lenses that are used in cataract procedures today.

Another reason to thank our WWII veterans!