Nutritional and Environmental Effects in the Development of Cataract

A cataract is any opacity of the lens, whether it is a small local opacity or a complete loss of transparency. The etiologic factor may be trauma, inflammation, metabolic or nutritional defects, radiation damage or simply an advanced senile change. Cataract is the single largest cause of blindness in the world. It blinds an estimated 17 million people. Cataract surgery, however is probably the single most effective operation performed in the whole of medicine and certainly one of the most common. When we consider cataract as a "global" problem, we are referring to "senile" cataract, a type assumed to be age-related.