{"id":42581,"date":"2025-02-17T15:54:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mylocaloptician.co.uk\/?p=23134"},"modified":"2025-02-17T15:54:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:54:27","slug":"the-nhs-celebrates-75-years-of-cataract-surgery-an-operation-which-helps-restore-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bedotdev.com\/mylocaloptician\/the-nhs-celebrates-75-years-of-cataract-surgery-an-operation-which-helps-restore-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"The NHS celebrates 75 years of cataract surgery, an operation which helps restore vision."},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHS celebrates 75 years of cataract surgery, an operation which helps restore vision.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The operation involves removing a lens – a small transparent disc inside the eye – that has become cloudy and replacing it with one made out of acrylic plastic.<\/h3>\n

Without the operation, the cloudy vision can lead to blurry vision and eventually blindness. Roughly half of those over the age of 60 have some degree of cataracts.<\/p>\n

Since it was first offered at St Thomas’ Hospital in 1950, nearly one billion cataract surgeries are estimated to have taken place across the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nOne couple from south-east London who have undertaken the procedure is John and Freda McBean.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I am already feeling better and can see more brightness than I could see before,” said Mr McBean, a retired deputy teacher from Chislehurst.<\/p>\n

About 10 years ago, he tore his retina and during the procedure to fix it, the surgeon noticed a cataract was starting to form.<\/p>\n

Over the last five years, Mr McBean’s vision deteriorated leading him to have cataract surgery on his left eye in February to remove the cloudy lens.<\/p>\n

He said he was not nervous as his wife had the operation on both eyes last year<\/p>\n

The Inventor of the procedure:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Harold, the creator of the procedure,<\/strong> made his medical breakthrough after treating a Spitfire pilot who had splinters of acrylic in his eye.<\/p>\n

He noticed that unlike most other foreign material, the eye did not reject this type of plastic.<\/p>\n

At the time, Sir Harold’s invention was considered radical and was initially resisted by much of the medical profession – but over time it has become the most common eye operation in the world.<\/p>\n

Today, the surgery takes only 15 to 30 minutes per eye, and patients are discharged within hours.<\/p>\n

To celebrate 75 years since its invention, ophthalmologists at Guy’s and St Thomas’ unveiled a portrait of Sir Harold Ridley gifted to the hospital by the Ridley Eye Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sir Harold’s invention was considered radical and was initially resisted by much of the medical profession<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28397,"featured_media":21843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2957],"tags":[3004],"class_list":["post-42581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vision-news","tag-nhs"],"yoast_head":"\nThe NHS celebrates 75 years of cataract surgery, an operation which helps restore vision. - My Local Optician<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Creator of the procedure, made his medical breakthrough after treating a Spitfire pilot who had splinters of acrylic in his eye\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bedotdev.com\/mylocaloptician\/the-nhs-celebrates-75-years-of-cataract-surgery-an-operation-which-helps-restore-vision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The NHS celebrates 75 years of cataract surgery, an operation which helps restore vision. - 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