The main symptoms of cataracts

Written by Peng Xi Feng
Ophthalmology
Updated on September 03, 2024
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The main symptoms of cataracts include: First, a decline in vision, which is the most obvious and significant symptom of cataracts. Second, a decrease in contrast sensitivity, particularly noticeable at high spatial frequencies in cataract patients. Third, changes in refractive power. Nuclear cataracts lead to increased lens power due to an increase in the lens and refractive index, causing nuclear myopia. Fourth, monocular diplopia or polyopia due to uneven refractive power across different parts of the lens, similar to the effect of a prism, resulting in monocular diplopia or polyopia. Fifth, glare. Sixth, changes in color perception. Seventh, varying degrees of visual field defects.

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Written by Zhou Qing
Ophthalmology
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Early symptoms of cataracts

The early symptoms of cataracts can manifest as day blindness or night blindness. When the cloudiness of the lens originates from the middle of the eye, the strong daylight and illumination can cause the pupil to contract, which then blocks the light from entering the eye, resulting in day blindness. When the cloudiness of the lens is located around the periphery of the eye, the dim light at night cannot reach the peripheral retina, thus causing night blindness. Other early symptoms of cataracts include the following: when the cloudiness of the lens is located at the pupil, patients may see fixed dots or patches of shadow in front of their eyes. However, since cataracts share similar characteristics with floaters, they should be distinguished; the shadows in floaters can move, while the shadows in cataracts are fixed. Varying degrees of blurry vision are also early symptoms of cataracts. Patients may experience gradually increasing blurriness of vision, often perceiving halos around lights or seeing colors of objects as dull and unclear. The early development of cataracts is quite slow and can be determined by the deepest and most obvious part of the lens cloudiness and its development condition.

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Written by Peng Xi Feng
Ophthalmology
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Cataracts are a condition of the eye.

Cataracts are degenerative changes causing a decline in optical quality, which are due to the decreased transparency or color change of a structure in the eye called the lens. The pathogenesis of cataracts is quite complex, resulting from the long-term combined effects of various internal and external factors on the lens. The lens is situated in the fluid environment of the eye, and any factor impacting this environment, such as aging, genetics, metabolic abnormalities, trauma, radiation, poisoning, localized nutritional disorders, as well as certain systemic metabolic or immune diseases, can directly or indirectly damage the tissue structure of the lens, interfere with its normal metabolism, and cause the lens to become opaque.

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Written by Peng Xi Feng
Ophthalmology
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Cataract is what?

All sorts of reasons, such as aging, genetics, local nutritional disorders, immune and metabolic abnormalities, trauma, poisoning, radiation, etc., can cause metabolic disorders in the lens, leading to the denaturation of the lens proteins and resulting in opacity known as cataract. At this point, the light is obstructed by the opaque lens and cannot be projected onto the retina, causing blurred vision. It is commonly seen in people over the age of forty, and the incidence increases with age. This disease can be divided into congenital cataracts and acquired cataracts. Congenital cataracts are also known as developmental cataracts, and there are six types of acquired cataracts.

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Written by Tao Yuan
Ophthalmology
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Will the pupil turn white in the early stages of cataract?

Cataracts are a common eye disease in ophthalmology and are currently the leading cause of blindness in China, posing a serious threat to the eye health of the public. In the early stages of cataract formation, the lens inside the eyeball usually has only mild cloudiness. Visually, from the outside, the cloudiness in the pupil area cannot be seen with the naked eye. However, when a doctor uses a slit lamp microscope for enhanced observation, cloudy patches inside the lens can be detected. At this time, the patient's vision decline is not significant, and surgery might not be immediately necessary; it is feasible to continue monitoring the changes in vision. As the cataract progresses, the area of cloudiness in the lens gradually expands. When it develops to the middle or late stage, white patches can be seen in the pupil area with the naked eye, and surgical treatment becomes necessary.

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Written by Zheng Xin
Ophthalmology
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Difference between fundus diseases and cataracts

Diseases of the eye fundus mainly refer to diseases of the choroid and retina in the posterior segment of the eye, while cataracts are diseases of the lens in the middle segment of the eye, so there is a difference in their locations. Clinically, eye fundus diseases manifest as declining vision and obstructed vision, while cataracts manifest as blurred vision, foggy vision, or seeing halos around lights. Eye fundus diseases can be treated conservatively or surgically, whereas cataracts require surgical treatment.