Cataract Surgery Malpractice Can Leave Patients with Permanent Vision Problems

Cataracts are cloudiness in eye lenses that cause vision loss over time. The exact cause of cataracts is not known but they are very common for people over 65 years of age. In cataract surgery, an ophthalmologist removes the defective lens and replaces it with an artificial lens. The two types of cataract surgeries are Extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and Intracapsular cataract extraction (ICCE). The ECCE procedure is the procedure that is most often used by eye doctors. An ECCE procedure allows the doctor to remove the cloudy lens while keeping the lens capsule intact. An ICCE surgery can impact the lens capsule.

Unfortunately, even the most seasoned eye doctor can make a mistake during cataract surgery that leads to serious health problems—even blindness.

Complications from cataract surgery

Cataracts surgeries are often performed in vulnerable elderly populations—each patient should fully understand the surgery and its risks before agreeing to an operation.

Types of issues and complications that arise in cataract surgeries include:

• Posterior Capsular Opacification. Here, a new cloudiness forms in the lens capsule after the surgery is done which can cause blurred vision
• Posterior Capsular Tears. This occurs when the eye doctor ruptures the natural lens’ posterior capsule.
• Posterior Vitreous Detachment. This condition affects the retina, which can then affect the patient’s vision.
• Retinal Detachment. Here the retina detaches from the vitreous body. This can cause serious harm to the eye.
• Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome (TASS). TASS is an inflammatory condition that can be treated with topical corticosteroids, which unfortunately are a known risk factor for cataracts.
• This is an infection of the eye tissues.
• This condition also caused cloudy vision. It is usually due to high blood pressure and swelling in the eye.
• A condition where the patients vision has a blue taint.
• Additional complications. These include swelling of the eye, displacement of the artificial lens implant, swelling of the retina, using the wrong synthetic lens, and applying anesthetic improperly.

You may have a claim for medical malpractice if your ophthalmologist made a serious error, such as a surgical mistake, and that error caused you great harm.

Please contact Paulson & Nace, PLLC through this contact form or by calling 202-463-1999.