Doctors no different from soldiers

THE capsulotomy step of modern cataract surgery is fundamentally finicky, the kind of step beginner surgeons find difficult, and if done incorrectly may result in imperfect vision of the kind that makes the patient’s head swim with nausea and the surgeon’s head swim with trying to deal with complaints – a double threat.

During the capsulotomy, I manoeuvre a slim pair of fine-toothed forceps to create a perfectly circular hole in the fine membrane of the eye’s lens, through which the yellowish, cataractous lens material is gently broken up and suctioned. An artificial lens is then inserted through the hole and stabilised within the membrane.