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Progression of cataract

Dear Dr John Hang, thank you very much for your valuable advise. My father is 63, I would  like to know is cataract progressive  or may become stable with  use of cataract eye drops (   I rally don't know are eye drops effective or may  be harmful?.) or any other  treatment except surgery?  If it is progressive , in advanced  stage is the surgery more difficult or not ? And how about the risk of glaucoma or any other conditions without surgery...Thanks a lot for your help  
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Dear Dr Hagan
Thank you very much for your valuable advise
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You are welcome
177275 tn?1511755244
First of all it's John Hagan.   It is not possible to accurately predict how fast a cataract will grow.  Some take 6-12 months like after severe trauma or a posterior capsular cataract and other may take 6-12 years.  While some encouraging research is being done on drops to slow cataract growth none of the over the counter drops that are shilled world wide slow cataracts and do anything other than make the person or company that sells them rich.  If a cataract get's rock hard (brown/black/red) it is more difficult to remove but other than in 3rd world countries without access to eye surgery this rarely happens.  Cataract surgery when performed by a skilled surgeon using state of the art equipment is 98% complication free and in the 1-3% that have complications they are USUALLY temporary and minor.  However like taking a trip in a car or a plane it is not risk free and in perhaps one in 10,000 people the complication can lead to severe vision loss even blindness.
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