Video: What are the benefits and risks of private cataract surgery?

In this video, I illuminate the benefits and risks of private cataract surgery and I explain the different steps to avoid unnecessary risk.

Well, the risks of any cataract surgery are exactly the same whether it’s on the National Health Service or privately.

And we provide a very detailed document that I implore all of my patients to use and read before they have cataract surgery. Now once you come and see me, we obvious discuss the major risks which are minimal actually.

Over the many years that cataract surgeries been around, we have reduced and reduced those risks to fairly insignificant numbers – but it’s not an operation without risk, we must emphasise that.

The main risks that we worry about are infection in the back of the eye and that has been improved over the years by the introduction of antibiotics at the time of surgery and using antibiotics after the surgery.

The risk of having a bleed within the eye during a surgery is very low; we ensure that patients don’t have any unnecessary risks due to high blood pressure before the operation.

There are other minor risks, but we must remember: ninety-six percent of patients have successful cataract surgery, and the majority that don’t, can have problems we can sort out.

Privately we can pick them up earlier, partly because we see you for an increase follow-up time, we see more than once. We make sure that you’re completely happy with you cataract operation and ensure that there are no other treatments that are required afterwards.

If you want to discuss any further aspects of that, please feel free to ring the phone number at the end of the video and we can arrange a time to talk about those specific items.

About Jaheed Khan

My name is Jaheed Khan and I am a Consultant Eye Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Clinica London.

My special expertise is in cataract surgery and conditions affecting the back of the eye, the retina, including AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration), diabetic retinopathy, and various other diseases of the retina.

I have over 15 years experience in treating people with eye problems just like you, and have published extensively in scientific journals about treating eye conditions.

In my NHS practice, I am responsible day-to-day for the training of the eye surgeons of the future.