Your recovery
How does healing progress after cataract surgery?
Realistic guide values from practice. Your personal course is closely monitored at the follow-up checks.
Day of surgeryYou go home after about two hours. The eye is sensitive to light; vision is often already clearer than before, but not yet sharp. Do not drive yourself.
Day 1Follow-up check at the clinic. Most people already see well enough for everyday tasks and notice how much more colourful the world has become.
Week 1Do not rub the eye, no heavy lifting, no swimming pool and no sauna. Drops according to the schedule. You take the starter package home with you.
Weeks 2 to 4Visual acuity stabilises. The second eye is operated on now if both are affected. Any glasses that may still be needed are fitted only after that.
Months 2 to 3With multifocal or EDOF lenses, neuroadaptation takes place: the brain learns to use the different focal planes. Rings around lights at night fade into the background.
When can I drive again?
Usually a few days after the procedure, as soon as your visual acuity meets the legal requirements. We confirm this at the follow-up check. Until then: better let someone else drive.
Can a cataract come back?
No. The artificial lens does not cloud over. A cataract cannot develop again. What can occur months to years later is a posterior capsule opacification (“secondary cataract”): a clouding of the remaining lens capsule. It is harmless and is treated painlessly with the YAG laser in a few minutes.
Can a cataract be lasered away?
No, and anyone offering you that means something else. With a cataract, the lens inside the eye is cloudy. A laser that reshapes the cornea does nothing about that: the clouding sits behind it. The only effective treatment is replacing the lens.
There is a reason for the confusion. A laser is indeed used during the operation: the femtosecond laser makes the incision and opens the lens capsule. That is a step within the operation, not a substitute for it. And people who had laser eye surgery before the diagnosis sometimes hear: “You’ll still get a cataract later.” That is true. Laser eye surgery does not prevent it.
The reverse also holds: anyone who has their lens replaced anyway is rid of cataracts for good. An artificial lens cannot become cloudy.
Is there an age limit for cataract surgery?
Not at the upper end. We regularly operate on people well beyond 85, and the oldest eye to receive a new lens with us was 94 years old. What matters is not the year of birth but whether the eye is otherwise healthy and whether you can lie still for twenty minutes.
The procedure is performed under anaesthetic eye drops: no general anaesthesia, no injection behind the eye. That is precisely what makes it well tolerated by the very old and by people with heart or lung conditions. Blood thinners usually do not have to be stopped.
At the lower end, nature sets the limit: a cataract before the age of 50 is rare and then usually has a cause, such as diabetes, prolonged cortisone treatment or an eye injury. In those cases too, we operate as soon as the clouding becomes bothersome.
When we advise waiting
iAs long as you manage in everyday life. A cataract does not become dangerous if you leave it. It only slowly takes away your vision.
✓As soon as driving, reading or recognising faces suffer, the time has come. Waiting brings no advantage; on the contrary, a very hard, advanced lens is technically more demanding to remove.
Is cataract surgery painful?
No. The eye is numbed with eye drops; you stay awake and responsive. Most patients afterwards describe a feeling of pressure and bright light, nothing more.
In the first hours afterwards the eye may feel dry or gritty. That is normal and usually passes the same day. Painkillers are generally not needed; if they are, an ordinary over-the-counter product is enough.
One note that matters more than the question of pain: severe, increasing pain in the days after surgery is not normal. If that happens, please call us instead of waiting.
How long does cataract surgery take?
The procedure itself takes about fifteen to twenty minutes per eye. What exactly happens is described step by step on Cataract surgery: procedure, lenses and costs. You will be at the practice considerably longer: with preparation, dilation of the pupil and the rest period afterwards, allow around two to three hours.
Timeline of the treatment day, EyeLaser Vienna, as of 2026.
| Step |
Duration |
| Arrival, final check |
about 30 minutes |
| Dilating the pupil |
30 to 45 minutes |
| The operation |
15 to 20 minutes |
| Rest, eye shield, debriefing |
about 45 minutes |
| Check-up the next day |
about 20 minutes |
Both eyes are not operated on the same day. There are usually one to two weeks between the procedures, so that the first eye can stabilise and we can feed its result into the calculation for the second.
Why is my vision blurred again weeks after surgery?
If your vision becomes cloudy again after an initially good recovery, often after months, sometimes after years, the cause is almost always a posterior capsule opacification. It is not a relapse and not a sign that something went wrong.
During the operation, the wafer-thin capsule that held your own lens stays in the eye. It holds the artificial lens in place. Over time this capsule can become cloudy. About one in five eyes is affected.
The treatment takes a few minutes and does not hurt. With a YAG laser, a small window is made in the capsule, as an outpatient, without an incision. Afterwards vision is clear again, and the opacification does not return.
If blurring appears in the first weeks, however, it usually has other causes: a dry eye, swelling that has not yet healed, or a glasses prescription that is still settling. That too should be looked at. Please get in touch instead of sitting it out.
How do I recognise a good clinic for cataract surgery?
The operation is considered routine, and it is. There are still differences, just not where most people look for them.
✓Who measures, and how often? The power of the artificial lens is calculated before the operation. This measurement decides your result more than any device in the operating theatre. Ask how many measurements are taken and whether the surgeon reviews them personally.
✓Does the person who advises you also operate? In larger institutions this is often not the case. With us it is.
✓Does the lens recommendation depend on the price? If the trifocal lens costs more than the monofocal one, the advice has a commercial undertone (the individual items are listed on Cataract surgery: procedure, lenses and costs). With us every lens costs €3,500 per eye, so that reason disappears.
✓What happens if something is not right? Ask who does the follow-up checks and what a touch-up costs. The answer says more about a clinic than any award.
The preliminary examination is the appointment at which all of this can be clarified, even if you decide on another clinic afterwards.
