My recent left eye cataract surgery complication

by Pete Martineau
(Sacramento, CA)

The cataract surgery I had a year and a half ago caused my left eye to have permanent "ghost images". The real image has to its upper right a dim, grey 1/4 image under the real image. This makes it hard to read traffic signs, especially the large street identification signs in the daytime. I had 20/15 far vision and no astigmatism for life until this cataract surgery, even in my middle 70s before surgery. The surgeon, Dr Jeffery Caspar of UCDavid health system, said the "ghost images" were from astigmatism caused by the surgery, and asked that we watch it for a few months, as it is likely to recede or go away. He said if it didn't improve, he would repair the problem by either using Lasik surgery or manually repairing it. It showed no improvement after 8 months. Caspar then said UCDavis no longer had the machines to fix my problem, and the incision needed for a manual fix was too deep for him to manually do the surgery. He said get a pair of glasses that would correct my left eye's first time astigmatism.