# Annual maintenance after cataract surgery? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089 "2017-05-07T21:03:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/1 "2017-05-07T21:03:33Z")
A friend of mine (age late 60s) had cataract surgery (both eyes) almost 10 years ago. She just told me that every year, some kind of “film” develops on her eyes or on the lenses, and she has to go in so the ophthalmologist can do a laser treatment and remove it. Has anyone ever heard of this? At the time she had the surgery, I recall that something went wrong with it–I don’t remember exactly what–ad she had to have some followup. Sorry I can’t supply more details. I do remember that she is/was very, very near-sighted and wore contacts from the early 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/2 "2017-05-07T21:47:11Z")
[posterior capsule opacification](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/cataracts/ndyag-laser-posterior-capsulotomy-for-cataracts) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/3 "2017-05-07T22:24:24Z")
Thanks! Very interesting. Apparently, this develops in 10-20% of patients who have cataract surgery. I have lots of friends who have had the surgery, but only this one who has developed PCO, sometimes called “secondary cataract.” Ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/4 "2017-05-07T22:44:21Z")
Strange; I had both my eyes done in my 60s and no one mentioned this. Thankfully I have not suffered any problems so far. If fact I no longer need distance glasses, only magnification for reading. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/5 "2017-05-07T23:56:53Z")
Apparently, it can happen years afterward. I need to have it done, but I’ve had several medical procedures in the last year and I’m swearing [del]at[/del] off doctors for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/6 "2017-05-08T12:19:57Z")
I had to have it done once. The ophthalmologist called in PCO. When I asked him what meant, he told me, but commented that if I googled it I would find polycystic ovaries, which I certainly don’t have. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/7 "2017-05-08T17:55:53Z")
I had it done about a year after my cataract surgery, They use a YAG laser and it takes only minutes. Doc told me I will not get it again. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/8 "2017-05-08T20:36:54Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > [posterior capsule opacification](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/cataracts/ndyag-laser-posterior-capsulotomy-for-cataracts) Only a decade or so ago did I learn that this is _not_ absolutely normal for what I learned and lumped together under “cataracts.” So, can someone tell me if there was a causative effect following the massive trauma to my eye (_Kids! Don’t Break Glass to See What Will Happen!_) and the years of cataract-only surgery; if it makes any difference, it was 1968-71 or so. Also, I remember early on, as a kid, being told that my “traumatic cataract” is different than … “old people cataract.” (Is there a word for “old-people cataract” besides “cataract?”) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/9 "2017-05-08T21:45:48Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > I had it done about a year after my cataract surgery, They use a YAG laser and it takes only minutes. Doc told me I will not get it again. My mom had the Yag procedure three years ago. Protein had developed on her lens. It’s common a few years after cataract surgery. The doctor said the Yag procedure has to be done only once. So far my mom’s other eye hasn’t developed that protein on her lens. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/10 "2017-05-09T00:36:47Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Apparently, it can happen years afterward. I need to have it done, but I’ve had several medical procedures in the last year and I’m swearing [del]at[/del] off doctors for a while. You should do this. As others noted, it’s only minutes. No actual recovery period, no drugs. I sat on an exam chair, the doc trundled over on his chair and the laser/viewer machine, he held open my eyelids with one gloved hand and popped (yeah, had a small popping sound, the trigger I guess) the membrane. I drove home. Yawn Note: This was a top eye guy who did thousands of operations a year. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-maintenance-after-cataract-surgery/786089/11 "2017-05-09T02:07:34Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > You should do this. As others noted, it’s only minutes. No actual recovery period, no drugs. I sat on an exam chair, the doc trundled over on his chair and the laser/viewer machine, he held open my eyelids with one gloved hand and popped (yeah, had a small popping sound, the trigger I guess) the membrane. I drove home. Yawn > > Note: This was a top eye guy who did thousands of operations a year. Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I need to have cataract surgery in the first place (not the PCO followup).