New Delhi, Nov 19th: With some trepidation, Rohit Wadhera, who is 58 years, took an hour and a half off on his way to work for a cataract surgery. His visual acuity rating was worse than 20/200 (being able to read 20/20 on the eye chart is “normal”.)

Poor vision affected nearly everything that Rohit did. He needed a magnifying glass to read despite his prescription glasses, in anything less than perfect light. Eventually he was forced to hire a driver for his daily commuting as he could no longer drive at night — the glare was blinding and not being able to see the road was terrifying — during the day on unfamiliar roads, he relied on his wife to read road signs because he didn't see them soon enough to follow them.

So with some encouragement from his wife and his 68-year-old neighbour who had already had his cataracts removed from both eyes and was able to abandon his thick glasses Rohit decided to go ahead with cataract removal surgery for his left eye.

After a pre-operative health check up and eye exam by the ophthalmologist, he entered the clinic at 9 in the morning. Instead of anaesthesia, he was administered a couple of eye drops, which made his eye numb.

In the next 10 minutes after making a minute incision of 1.6mm-1.8mm, using a global breakthrough technique called Stellaris-Micro Incision Cataract Surgery (S-MICS), his opaque lens was removed and replaced with a third generation ultra-thin foldable Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) called Akreos™ AO MIL.

He walked half an hour later with a “new” eye, able to walk the streets, drive and even read without glasses. Immediately after the surgery, the visual acuity was 20/25, and further improvement was expected as the eye healed.

S-MICS is nothing short of amazing. The simple surgery was life changing! No wonder S-MICS been honoured with Healthcare Innovation Award while Akreos AO MIL has been awarded the Medical Design Excellence Award for 2008.

Earlier cataract surgery was performed with an incision of 12mm and entailed days in the hospital with eyes strapped in swathes of bandage, weeks immobile at home, and subsequent need to wear coke-bottle glasses. Over few years, with the advent of Phacoemulsification (Phaco), the size of incision was reduced to 2.8mm - 3.4mm.

This was till recently the popular trend of cataract surgery worldwide. Today Stellaris MICS has revolutionised cataract treatment, making life a lot simpler, comfortable and safe for cataract patients.

While in the past people waited until a cataract was fully “ripe” and nearly blinding before having it removed and avoided getting operated during summer and rainy seasons, the current recommendation is to have Stellaris MICS as soon as a cataract interferes with normal activities, such as, driving, watching television, climbing stairs, cooking and reading. In fact, the more advanced a cataract becomes, the more difficult and risky the surgery.

The path breaking, quick and virtually painless cataract treatment, Stellaris MICS, performed as an out -patient procedure, will change the way people look at cataract in the future.