Huang Ophthalmology Center Inc.

What is a YAG Laser Capsulotomy?

When cloudy vision occurs after cataract surgery, most patients immediately think that their cataracts grew back.  After cataract surgery, the cataract will never come back, however there is about a 50% chance that the capsule develops excess epithelial cells from the eye and a protein film will form across the posterior capsule much like a spider web.  It may form in both eyes, only one eye or even not at all.  When this happens, your vision becomes hazy, you may experience double vision and see glare caused by bright lights or from lights at night-time.  While capsule clouding or posterior capsule opacification (PCO) maybe seen as soon as a few months following cataract surgery, it usually takes one or two years to cause visual blurring.  Apart from affecting your vision, the thickening does not damage the eye in any way, however, with PCO, if left untreated, the haziness will only get worse.  Therefore, it is highly recommended to get treated with the YAG laser procedure.

YAG laser procedure takes less than 5 minutes.  There is no pain as nothing will be touching your eyes.  Since the capsule has no nerve endings, just like your hair or finger nails, there is no pain when the beam of YAG laser is used to make small openings in the posterior capsule to clear the clouded membrane.  The YAG laser creates a small hole in the center of the capsule which lets light through and clears the membrane for the protein to build on.  Once the procedure is completed and the capsule clouding is cleared, it is usually permanent and will not have to be repeated again in the future.  Within a day or two after you YAG laser, you will start seeing improvement with your vision.