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Monday, September 9, 2002
Cataract surgery can help older drivers
By Sonja Isger, Palm Beach Post Staff
Writer
Monday, September 9, 2002
Gloria O'Connor suspected the world was
conspiring against her vision.
"I was cursing at the television. I was
cursing at the signs. They don't make the television clear anymore, I said.
They make bad signs, I thought," O'Connor said.
But the truth was much more mundane -- and
typical -- for a 68-year-old. She had cataracts. The lens in both of her
eyes were slowly fogging over.
"I never knew."
And all the time she never knew, she drove
with a vengeance.
"I went any damn place I wanted to go,
whether it was Orlando or whatever, and I cursed then, too. I mean, I had to
get to places. I live alone, so I had no one to drive me," O'Connor
recalled.
She never got a ticket. And she went years
without taking another driving exam. A driver with a good record in Florida
may go up to 18 years without stepping foot in the examiner's office.
Then her doctor convinced her that the
world was not awry, her eyesight was. She agreed to have the cataract
removed.
"Wow. It was like the sky opened up," said
O'Connor, who now coordinates AARP's 55 Alive safe driving course for senior
drivers.
About half of all adults older than age 65
have a cataract. And though the technology is out there to quickly repair
the damage, not all choose that option.
At the same time, the same age group is
among the fastest growing on America's roads. The National Transportation
Safety Board predicts by 2010 there will be 5 million more drivers older
than age 65 on the road. And when car accidents are calculated based on the
number of miles driven, this group ranks right up there with teenagers --
the leaders in per-miles-driven crashes at 15 per million miles travel,
according to The Journal of the American Medical Association.
A lot of patients who have a cataract are
in denial, even when faced with a doctor's diagnosis, said West Palm Beach
ophthalmologist Dr. David Cano, former vice president for the Florida
Society of Ophthalmologists.
But now those doctors might have one more
tool to persuade the reticent who continue to drive: According to research
published in the August edition of JAMA, those who have surgery to
remove a cataract have half as many car crashes as those who don't.
Making up for slow reflexes
The study followed 277
cataract patients, 174 who had surgery and 103 who didn't, for five years.
Both groups had increases in crash rates, reflecting the trend that as
people get older their crash rate goes up, the study said. But the rates for
those who opted out of surgery went up significantly, where the surgery
group's didn't, the authors said.
Most older adults compensate for their
slowing reflexes in one way or another, according to the study. Some take
classes like the ones O'Connor manages.
Tuesday morning, about a dozen seniors are
at the Delray Beach Community Center for four hours of tips and safety
reminders.
Jane S. Timm, 80, of Delray Beach, said she
simply drives a lot slower.
Delray Beach resident Judy Katzmann, who's
"60-something," said she handed the keys over to her husband when she had
difficulty reading the street signs. But after cataract surgery, she's back
on the road -- and in driving class.
In Boynton Beach, Cliff Edwardsen, 84, has
given up night driving. "The view just wasn't clear at night."
O'Connor reports that others avoid the
interstate, make elaborate travel plans to avoid crossing traffic with
left-hand turns. The AARP driving instructors advise seniors to crack their
windows to hear approaching sirens or trains. They review how to adjust car
mirrors and discuss memorizing road signs -- a not-so-easy-task in ever
growing South Florida.
Not all cataracts the same
Some seniors are eager to
gobble up the advice (and probably the accompanying insurance discount) that
O'Connor said she is desperately seeking more places to hold classes.
But the JAMA authors note that there
is no research to prove that time in the classroom cuts crashes on the road.
And no course might be able to compensate for the difficulties cataract can
present.
There are various types of cataracts and
some are more debilitating than others, Cano said. While some may simply
blur signs, others can render the night driver practically blind. "I've had
people who had to pull of the road when someone turned on their high beams."
Cano cautions, however, that cataract
surgery doesn't correct other eye problems.
"A lot of patients are disappointed after
surgery. They have the cataract taken out but they have other degenerative
problems... so regardless of having the cataract taken out, they won't see
better and they won't be able to drive."
Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
Copyright © 2002, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved.
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