Hello there ....I'm an active male, 67 yrs old, play lots of tennis, racquet ball,
golf, shotgun shooting.......about 8 yrs ago I had RK surgery[8cuts] and both eyes were over corrected, left eye 20/40 and right eye 20/100 .... day to day I wear bi-focal glasses:
L +1.75 R +3.00-.75 x 65 but due to hand eye coordination problems with sports I wear soft contact lens: +1.50 and +2.50 and my vision is excellent with these contacts, but don't like to wear them all the time cause my eyes get dry and the lens begin to get cloudy after a few hours.
I have been waiting for a new Lasik procedure to come along that would fix my over correction, but none so far seem dependable to me.... I went to my Optometrist last week and he said that both of my eyes have the beginning of cataracts and that the solution to my problem is to have cataract surgery, and simply replace the lens with my proper prescription because more than likely I'll have to have cataract surgery in 5 to 8 yrs anyway.

Now then, I don't expect you to make a concrete recommendation, but I would like to hear your general thoughts on having cataract surgery before it's absolutely necessary as a way of improving my over-corrected vision?

Thank you for your help...Arlen

Clear lens extraction (the removal of a peson's own lens that has not yet become a cataract) has become increasingly popular in the US. Since everyone will develop a cataract if they live long enough, removing a person's own lens can be an effective method for correcting myopia or astigmatism.
However, there are serious risks involved with elective cataract surgery that anyone considering surgery should be aware of.
The first is that there is a 1 in 1000 chance of developing an infection following cataract surgery - and a percentage of these people who develop infections will have a major loss of vision.
As well, there is also a chance of retinal detachment or swelling of the central retina after surgery. Obviously other unforseen problems can occasionally occur.
So the key is that there is some risk with clear-lens extraction.
On the other hand, there is a risk of problems with laser treatment - which can include flap complications, irregular astigmatism, infectionsm, etc. So laser also has risks.
I should also add that calculating the perfect intraocular lens is far more difficult after RK than for a person who has never had eye surgery - and it is possible that the final vision can still not be good enough to be glasses or contact-free.
So for a person in your situation - it is important to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of all of your options and try to decide whether any type of surgery is worthwhile, or whether it is better to wait to see what other technologies develop in the next 2-3 years.

Best of luck

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami, FL