Cataracts, the progressive clouding of the eye’s outer lens, are the leading cause of blindness worldwide, according to the World Health Organization’s 2019 World Report on Vision. Their surgical removal, typically an in-office procedure and one of the most frequently performed surgeries in the world, is and has been the only remedy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to date.
Globally, over 2 billion people are affected by cataracts. Some 88.17 percent of people over 60 will develop some form of cataract, according to a research review published in Eye in 2020, with a study published in PLoS Medicine in 2008 showing “a significant relationship between poverty and visual impairment from cataract.”
