Cataract Surgery: What to Know and How to Prepare
Eye & Vision HealthEye & Vision Disorders

Surgery for Cataracts

Surgery for Cataracts
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Updated on February 20, 2026
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Cataracts develop when proteins in the lens of your eye clump together, eventually causing changes in your vision like cloudiness, blurriness, or reduced color vision.

While cataracts can cause unpleasant or distracting visual changes and symptoms, they don’t usually require immediate treatment. As a rule, surgeons remove cataracts only if they’ve grown severe enough to disrupt your daily activities, like driving or reading.

Instead of intervening right away to treat your cataracts, your ophthalmologist will most likely seek to work with you to manage your symptoms until treatment becomes unavoidable. But while you may be able to limit the disruption a cataract causes by modifying your activities and using visual aids, there’s no curative treatment for cataracts other than surgery.

Understanding what cataract surgery entails, as well as the risks and benefits, can help you decide if this treatment is right for you.

What to Expect With Cataract Surgery

Surgery for cataracts involves removing your damaged lens and replacing it with an artificial lens.

Known as an intraocular lens, this replacement lens requires no maintenance and becomes a permanent part of your eye. It won’t feel any different from your eye’s natural lens.

When you undergo surgery for cataracts, you’ll receive numbing eye drops, and your doctor might give you medication to help you relax, as well. You’ll likely stay awake for the procedure, which typically lasts 10 to 15 minutes. You shouldn’t feel any pain.

After the procedure, you’ll need someone to drive you home as your vision might be blurry. This is temporary and should resolve in a few days.

You may also experience some discomfort following the procedure, such as redness, watering, or a gritty feeling in your eye, that should get better within a few days. You should be completely healed within about four weeks.

If you need surgery in both eyes, you’ll have surgery in one eye first, then in the other eye once you’ve completely recovered from the first surgery.

Types of Cataract Surgery Procedures

There are two main procedures used to operate on cataracts:

Small Incision Cataract Surgery Also known as phacoemulsification, this procedure involves making a small incision on the side of your cornea (the clear outer layer of your eye).

Your surgeon uses an ultrasound device to break up the center of your damaged lens, which is then removed through the incision using suction, and then inserts the artificial lens.

Extracapsular Surgery This procedure, which is less commonly used, involves making a longer incision in your cornea, through which your surgeon removes the center of your lens. The rest of the lens is then removed using suction before placement of the intraocular lens.

Surgery Aftercare and Potential Complications

After your surgery, avoid touching or rubbing your eye. Your ophthalmologist may give you a protective shield to wear over your eye as it heals. You may be instructed to wear the covering while sleeping for several days after.

Within the first two days after surgery, it’s important not to bend down with your head below your waist. This can cause an increase in eye pressure and hinder healing. Avoid strenuous activity for 7 to 10 days after the procedure. Most people can resume regular activities like reading and watching television within several hours of surgery. Your doctor will let you know when you can resume driving.

Your ophthalmologist will also prescribe eyedrops to reduce your risk of infection and ease inflammation. It’s important to take these as directed.

Like many types of surgery, cataract surgery involves a risk of infection and bleeding. It also slightly raises your risk of retinal detachment, a medical emergency that can result in permanent vision loss.

Signs of retinal detachment include specks, or “floaters,” in your field of vision, as well as flashes of light in one or both eyes, blurred vision, or shadowed vision. With emergency treatment, it’s often possible to avoid permanent vision loss.

 If you experience signs of a retinal detachment or other symptoms like severe eye pain, vision loss, increased redness, or eyelid swelling, contact your ophthalmologist right away or go to the emergency room.

But keep in mind, cataract surgery is one of the safest and most common operations in the United States, with around 3.8 million procedures performed each year.

 Less than 1 percent of these cases result in serious complications.

Cataract surgery also has a very high success rate. About 97 percent of people who have had the procedure experience improvement in their vision. After surgery, you can expect to have vision that’s sharper and clearer, see colors more vividly, and be less bothered by glare.

Considerations for Cataract Surgery

Surgery to treat cataracts is almost never an urgent necessity, so it’s important for both you and your ophthalmologist to carefully consider whether it’s right for you — and when.

Your doctor may base cataract treatment recommendations on:

  • Your age
  • Your overall health
  • How severe your cataract is
  • How well you’re managing vision changes
  • Your personal preferences
Delaying surgery for cataracts doesn’t affect how well your vision will be restored when you eventually have the surgery. That’s because the procedure involves removing and replacing the lens of your eye.

If you decide not to go forward with the surgery, your doctor may recommend regular follow-up exams to monitor your vision and reconsider your options. How often these exams take place depends on the severity and progression of your cataracts.

Managing Cataract Symptoms Without Surgery

The first treatment stage for most people with cataracts is an effort to manage and minimize symptoms.

For example, you may find that you can improve your functional vision by taking steps such as:

  • Updating your glasses prescription
  • Improving the lighting in your home or office
  • Using magnifying lenses and other visual aids
  • Wearing antiglare sunglasses
Once measures like these are no longer enough for you to comfortably and confidently go about daily activities like driving, reading, or using a computer, it may be time to consider surgery, under the guidance of your ophthalmologist.

The Takeaway

  • Cataract surgery involves replacing the damaged lens in your eye with an artificial one and is only necessary when cataracts significantly disrupt daily activities.
  • The procedure is painless and considered very safe, though there is a small risk of serious complications like infections and retinal detachment.
  • If you experience symptoms like floaters, severe eye pain, or vision loss, call your ophthalmologist right away or go to the emergency room.
  • Regular follow-up exams help monitor cataract progression, and most individuals experience improved vision postsurgery, leading to an enhanced quality of life.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Cataract Surgery. Mayo Clinic. September 9, 2023.
  2. Cataracts. National Eye Institute. November 26, 2025.
  3. Cataract Surgery. Cleveland Clinic. April 5, 2023.
  4. Cataracts. Johns Hopkins Medicine.
  5. Mukamal R. Cataract Surgery Recovery: Exercising, Driving and Other Activities. American Academy of Ophthalmology. February 26, 2025.
  6. Retinal Detachment. MedlinePlus. December 3, 2025.
  7. Retinal Detachment. Mayo Clinic. September 27, 2024.
  8. Retinal Detachment. National Eye Institute. November 5, 2025.
  9. O’Brart D. The Future of Cataract Surgery. Eye (London, England). March 13, 2025.
  10. Danziger G et al. Role of Social Determinants of Health on Cataract Surgery Complications. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. June 2025.
  11. Cataracts. Mayo Clinic. September 28, 2023.
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Edmund Tsui, MD

Medical Reviewer

Edmund Tsui, MD, is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

He earned his medical degree from Dartmouth. He completed an ophthalmology residency at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where he was chief resident, followed by a fellowship in uveitis and ocular inflammatory disease at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology at the University of California in San Francisco.

Dr. Tsui is committed to advancing the field of ophthalmology. His research focuses on utilizing state-of-the-art ophthalmic imaging technology to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of uveitis. He is a co-investigator in several multicenter clinical trials investigating therapeutics for uveitis. He is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed publications and has given talks at national and international conferences.

Along with his clinical and research responsibilities, Tsui teaches medical students and residents. He is on the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's professional development and education committee, as well as the advocacy and outreach committee, which seeks to increase funding and awareness of vision research. He also serves on the editorial board of Ophthalmology and the executive committee of the American Uveitis Society.

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A freelance health writer and editor based in Wisconsin, Quinn Phillips has a degree in government from Harvard University. He writes on a variety of topics, but is especially interested in the intersection of health and public policy. Phillips has written for various publications and websites, such as Diabetes Self-Management, Practical Diabetology, and Gluten-Free Living, among others.

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