Can people with Dementia go through cataract surgery?

yearofthedragon

My mom needs cataract surgery and I can't tell if it's worth it to schedulew it because she really doesn't want to and is soooo tired all of the time. I can't tell if she would be able to do it or not. Have any of your loved ones gone through with it successfully? It's described as being a fairly quick and easy procedure with quick recovery. My mom has bad eyesight (obviously) and I wonder if not getting the surgery now would be a regret down the line.

Quilting brings calm

There are two annoying parts to the surgery:1) the number of eye drops for days before and weeks after and 2) the patch after eye protection.

Will someone be there to coordinate giving the drops: 3 different drops, different schedules, 4 times a day and will someone make sure she wears the patch for the time required?

Some surgeons inject drugs into the eye at surgery and eliminate the drops.

Will she be able to handle the procedure itself. All the time at the office? Staying still for the length of the procedure? Or will she have a meltdown and demand to go home?

harshedbuzz

@yearofthedragon

It's really hard to say. As QBC mentioned, while this is a relatively minor and common procedure, the before/after care is considerable and will require both supervision and her cooperation. Depending on how deep her cataracts are, there could be some discomfort. The procedure is normally done under very light sedation, which DH described as "weird", and she'll need to cooperate with this as well. IME, these facilities tend to operate almost like factories, and you can't rely on staff to be dementia-informed in their care.

The other piece to this is that eyes function as a kind of receiver of visual information which is interpreted by the brain. As dementia progresses and the brain become more damaged, her ability to "see" will be impacted by that as well. It can be really difficult to parse out vision difficulties as being purely lens related vs processing.

HB

sandwichone123

If my loved one were in the situation, I would skip the surgery. She's not motivated to get it done in the first place and will have a great deal of trouble with the surgery and follow-through, for diminishing returns. My dad had eye surgery and the outcome was not nearly as rosy as he had been promised.

SusanB-dil

So glad this came up. We were also mulling this over for MIL. We thought it was just a minor, albeit delicate, procedure. Had no idea all the aftercare involved, which I am quite sure she would not be able to manage that part very well at all.

harshedbuzz

Cobbling onto what @sandwichone123 mentioned. Both my parents had cataract surgery; dad was probably MCI/very early disease at the time and highly motivated and mom was there to manage meds.

This is an amazing surgery, but there are risks involved immediately after and down the line. One of those is an increased risk of retinal detachment especially if there past eye injury, past eye surgery, high myopia. Dad's detachment occurred in the early mid-stage of dementia a few years later and he didn't recognize the symptoms. Because this is an emergency, he lost the vision in that eye. He had an advanced repair attempt which restored some light/dark and movement detection, but it impacted his depth perception and increased his fall risk.

HB

H1235

I know nothing about cataract surgery. Would it be necessary to avoid rubbing your eyes for hours/days after the surgery? I wonder if a pwd might forget they had surgery or that they shouldn’t rub their eyes. Could this cause problems? Mil with dementia broke her arm and forgot kept taking the sling off and trying to use it.

fmb

@H1235

Yes, you cannot rub your eyes for weeks after the surgery due to risk of infection and retinal tears. It takes up to six months for the eyes to completely heal and the swelling to disappear. I had cataract surgery a few weeks ago and have a hard time remembering to not rub my eyes. Now I am being observed for symptoms I am having that could lead to retinal tears and am under additional restrictions. I would not advise the surgery for a PWD. The risks outweigh the benefits.