Funnily, when I read up on the state of the art, I felt let down that we are apparently still far away from being able to dissolve cataracts with eye drops. I'm hoping for that when my time comes.

> I feel truly lucky to have been born into a time of modern medicine.

Well it really depends on how you look at it...

I would argue that the truly 'modern' aspect of cataract surgery is the IOL manufacturing and implantation image-guided systems.

I have a massive respect for Ophthalmic surgeons but worth mentioning (most) current cataract surgeries still imply:

1. A manual incision (read stabbing you with a handheld scalpel)

2. Capsulorhexis (manually open the lens capsule)

3. Using a handheld ultrasonic 'jackhammer' to destroy the old lens and quite literally suck it out, working in a foggy environment with limited depth perception in a tiny chamber right next to a thin film behind the lens.

4. Finally then implanting the new IOL lens.

So with so much of 'modern' surgery still depending on Human Perception and Human submilimiter dexterity, with surgeons who are likely doing 16 plus surgeries a day. It is truly a remarkable statistic that only 5% of Cataract surgeries suffer complications.

And if you think the odds are against surgeons in Cataract surgery wait until you read up on retinal surgery, then it really drives the point home of how insanely skilled Ophthalmic surgeons are.

Wait till you hear about how they used to wake people up before smelling salts (hint: they used it on horses too)