Guidance
This guideline covers managing cataracts in adults aged 18 and over. It aims to improve care before, during and after cataract surgery by optimising service organisation, referral and surgical management, and reducing complications. It further aims to improve the availability of information for people with cataracts before, during and after cataract surgery.
We have produced a large print version of this guideline, which is available to download in tools and resources.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- patient information
- referral for cataract surgery
- preoperative assessment and biometry
- preventing wrong lens implant errors
- surgical timing and technique
- preventing and managing complications
- postoperative assessment
Who is it for?
- Healthcare professionals
- Commissioners and providers
- People with cataracts, their families and carers
Is this guideline up to date?
November 2021: We have checked this guideline and will decide whether to update our recommendation on laser-assisted cataract surgery when the update to the Cochrane review on laser‐assisted versus standard ultrasound phacoemulsification cataract surgery (Day et al. 2016) has published. For more information, see the surveillance decision.
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.