Recovery-Cataract surgery

You should be able to go home on the same day as your cataract surgery.

You may have a pad and plastic shield over your eye when you leave hospital, which can usually be removed the day after surgery.

Feeling should start to return to your eye within a few hours of surgery, but it may take a few days for your vision to fully return.

It's normal to have:

These side effects usually improve within a few days but it can take 4 to 6 weeks to recover fully.

If you need new glasses, you won't be able to order them until your eye has completely healed – usually after 6 weeks.

Cataract surgery has a high success rate in improving your eyesight and should allow you to return to your normal activities, like driving.

Overview-Cataract surgery

Cataract surgery involves replacing the cloudy lens inside your eye with an artificial one.

It's the most common operation performed in the UK, with a high success rate in improving your eyesight.

It can take 4 to 6 weeks to fully recover from cataract surgery.

Cataracts are when the lens of your eye, a small transparent disc, develops cloudy patches.

When we're young, our lenses are usually like clear glass, allowing us to see through them.

As we get older they start to become frosted, like bathroom glass, and begin to limit our vision.

Cataracts most commonly affect adults as a result of ageing. See age-related cataracts.