CHANGES OF VISUAL FUNCTION AND VISUAL ABILITY IN DAILY-LIFE FOLLOWINGCATARACT-SURGERY

We conducted a prospective study of 56 patients aged 70 to 79 years un dergoing cataract surgery, in order to determine the impact of surgery on subjective and objective measurements of visual ability, In 46 cas es we could obtain all necessary data. Binocular visual acuity, near v ision and contrast sensitivity improved due to surgery, Self-assessed ability to perform visually related tasks was examined in form of a qu estionnaire. The results show that there was no simple relationship be tween objective measurements and perceived visual ability. An impairme nt in preoperative visual acuity cannot be related to a specific loss of visual ability. In order to increase the quality of cataract surger y more subtly subjective aspects of vision must be taken into consider ation when operation is decided upon and in the evaluation of the resu lts.