Cataract Surgery

When your cataract starts to interfere with your daily life, it may be time to consider cataract surgery. At UVA Health, our skilled eye surgeons offer safe, effective treatment using the latest tools. Our advanced techniques help you get back to seeing clearly and living fully.

When to Consider Cataract Surgery

You may need surgery if:

Your vision is blurry most of the time
You have trouble reading or driving
Glare or halos around lights make it hard to see
Glasses or contacts no longer help

We recommend surgery when the cataract starts to affect your quality of life.

How Cataract Surgery Works

Cataract surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear, artificial lens called an intraocular lens or IOL.

There are different ways to do the procedure, but the most common is phacoemulsification. We make a tiny cut in your eye and use ultrasound waves to break up and remove the cataract. We then place the artificial lens.

In some cases, we may need to do extracapsular cataract extraction. We use this option when your cataract is too dense or hard to remove with ultrasound. This is more common when your cataract is very advanced. During this procedure, we make a larger incision and remove the cataract in one piece.