Medway & Millis February 2019

February 2019 Medway & Millis Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com Page 11
Living Healthy
Time for Cataract Surgery? Ask the Smart Questions
By: Roger M. Kaldawy, M.D.
Milford Franklin Eye Center
Cataract surgery is by far
the most common surgery performed
in the United States.
With advanced technology and
if you choose an experienced
and highly skilled surgeon, modern
cataract surgery should be
a rather quick outpatient and a
minimal risk procedure. If you
are considering cataract surgery,
your expectations should not
only be to improve your vision,
reduce glare at night, see brighter
and more vivid colors and improve
your day to day activities,
but you should also be given an
opportunity to reduce your dependence
on glasses or contacts
and in many cases eliminate this
need. Nowadays, many choices
exist on where to have the surgery
and by whom. Here are the
specific questions to ask when
you are trying to select the ideal
surgical centers, resources, experience,
skills and outcomes as
you make the critical decision of
who will perform your cataract
surgery.
1. Why are you referring me
to this surgeon? Many eye
care providers and more specifically
optometrists will want
you to travel miles or hours
away from home to have
your surgery with a particular
surgeon of their choice. Of
course, they may claim that
the surgeon they are sending
you to is the best or the equipment
used is the best. You
may wonder why they are
doing this when you have an
experienced surgeon within
minutes from where you live
and when this top-notch surgeon
with excellent nationwide
reputation will perform
your surgery in a state-of-theart
surgery center in the same
area where you live. In fact,
this center has better equipment
that may not even exist
in the center your optometrist
wants you to go to. Beware referral
bias: Ask this provider
if there is a business relationship
linking him/ her as an
optometrist with the surgeon
and more specifically if that
provider will benefit from a
financial agreement linked to
his referral to that far away
surgeon he/ she wants you to
go to.
2. What type of anesthesia am
I going to get? With modern
cataract surgery, most surgeries
should be completed
under topical anesthesia and
local sedation. Local sedation
means that the anesthesiologist
will give you minimal
sedation, allowing you to
recover your activities after
surgery almost immediately
with little or no health risk.
Topical anesthesia means
that the surgery eye becomes
numb with drops. No need
for injections or shots around
or behind your eye. No shots
will reduce the risk of bleeding
and serious complications
from the shots. Also, shots require
deeper anesthesia, and
this can leave you at risk from
the same. Ask your referring
optometrist about the techniques
of the surgeon he/ she
wants to send you to and how
your procedure will be performed.
If or not a shot will
be done around or behind
your eye and who will do it
should be discussed with you
before the procedure and you
should be able to consent to
it, and not just assume that is
part of the surgery.
3. What are the risks? One of
the most dreaded risks of
cataract surgery is accidental
damage to the posterior
capsule, which is the back
wall of the bag holding your
lens. The best practices have
a rupture rate of 2 to 4 per
thousand cases. The source
of this information should
be credible, and ideally made
available by an independent
review committee in a surgery
center. Ask your referring
optometrist about his/
her surgeon of choice complication
rate and how this is
monitored. Does the surgeon
have an independent review
committee in his/ her center
to validate this rate?
4. What is the rate of infections
in your center? Another
potentially devastating
risk of cataract surgery is an
infection inside the eye called
“endophthalmitis”. Ask your
referring optometrist about
his/her surgeon of choice
percentage of patients getting
this infection in the center
they send you to for your
operation. The source of this
information, again, should
be credible, and ideally made
available by an independent
Life Needs Flexibility
review committee inside the
surgery center.
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FRANKLIN INTRODUCING
EYES
continued on page 13
February Vacation
Optical
Shop
On-Site
MILFORD - FRANKLIN
EYE CENTER
Roger M. Kaldawy, M.D. John F. Hatch, M.D.
Kameran A. Lashkari, M.D. Shazia S. Ahmed, M.D.
Michael R. Adams, O.D. Caroline Perriello Consigli, O.D.
Welcoming Dr Ahmed and Dr Perriello Consigli to our staff!
Saturday &
After Hours
Available
OFFERING LASER CATARACT SURGERY LOCALLY IN MILFORD!
508-528-3344 YOUR EYES
391 East Central Street DESERVE
Franklin, MA 02038 THE BEST
508-473-7939
160 South Main St (Rt 140)
Milford, MA 01757
NOW AVAILABLE
130 Franklin Village Dr.
Franklin, MA 02038
508.520.2257