There is an interesting article in the September issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. In the article, The Impact of Cataract Surgery on Cognitive and Depressive Mental Status in Elderly Patients, Ishii, Kabata, and Oshika report that the improvement in best corrected visual acuity is positively associated with quality of life and an improvement in depressive mental status.
There is no doubt that cataract surgery improves the quality of life in all patients. I certainly notice a marked improvement in the attitudes of many of my patients after they have undergone successful cataract surgery.
Cataract surgery is an outpatient surgical procedure. It is performed under local anesthesia. My patients generally leave the surgical center without their eyes even patched, and are able to resume normal activities the very next day.
