Cataract surgery in Turkey

A cataract is the eye's own lens turning cloudy, usually with age, sometimes earlier with diabetes, steroid use, an injury or simply family history. Glasses stop helping once the cloudiness is behind the pupil, and the only treatment is to remove the lens and put an artificial one in its place. Turkey does this in very large numbers: the private eye hospitals that grew up around laser correction run cataract lists every day, and their surgeons operate on foreign and Turkish patients alike with the same phaco machines, femtosecond lasers and lens brands used in Western Europe.

The people who make the trip fall into a few groups. Patients on a public waiting list at home who do not want to wait, and for whom a private quote at home is high. Patients who want a premium lens, trifocal or toric, that their public system will not fund. Patients who want both eyes done in one trip rather than two separate procedures months apart. And patients from countries where cataract surgery is simply expensive. What they have in common is that the operation is planned, quick and done as day surgery, so it fits a short stay with two or three check-ups before the flight home.

The clinics listed below are ranked by FlymediScore, and each price shown carries its basis, all-inclusive package or treatment only, so you can see what a figure actually buys before you compare it with a quote at home. This page is the explanation that sits around that list.

This is where a Turkish quote and a quote at home most often fail to match: a low price is nearly always a monofocal lens, and a premium price is nearly always a trifocal, so make sure both quotes name the lens. The right lens is not the most expensive one. A trifocal suits someone who wants to be free of glasses and can accept some night-time halos; it does not suit someone who drives a lot at night, has macular disease, or is a perfectionist about contrast. The surgeon should ask about your work, your driving and your hobbies before recommending a lens, and should be able to say which brand and model they use and why. A clinic that puts the trifocal in the headline before it has measured your eyes is selling the lens, not choosing it.

The starting prices on this page come from the clinics themselves and are shown per clinic with their basis, all-inclusive package or treatment only. We do not print a single figure in the text, because a cataract price without the lens, the number of eyes and the basis attached is not a price, and a number typed here would be out of date the week the clinics changed theirs.

What moves the price, roughly in order: the lens, because a trifocal or toric lens can cost several times a monofocal and the lens is often most of the bill; one eye or both; whether a femtosecond laser is used; the surgeon and the hospital; whether the biometry, the drops and the check-ups are inside the price or billed separately; and, for a treatment-only price, the transfers and the hotel for the days between the first eye and the discharge check. An all-inclusive cataract surgery package in Turkey typically bundles the surgery for the agreed lens, the pre-operative examination, the post-operative checks during your stay, airport and clinic transfers and the hotel nights; it typically does not include flights, a lens upgrade decided after biometry, treatment of a complication after you have gone home, or a return trip. Read the word "all-inclusive" as a list to be checked, not a promise.

What the written quote must name before you pay:

• The lens brand and model for each eye, and whether the price is per eye or for both
• What happens to the price if the biometry rules out the lens you were quoted, or rules out one eye
• Whether the femtosecond laser is included, optional or not offered
• The biometry and examination, the drops, and the number of check-ups during your stay
• Who treats a complication in the first weeks, where, and at whose cost, including a laser for a later capsule opacification
• Transfers, hotel nights and interpreter, if the price is presented as a package
• The surgeon's name, so that the quote and the person operating are the same

Cataract surgery is a volume operation, and volume is what you are checking. Ask how many cataract operations the surgeon, not the hospital, does in a year, and how many with the lens you are considering; a surgeon who implants trifocals every week handles the alignment, the expectations and the occasional unhappy patient differently from one who does a few a year. The clinic should be licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Health, and the surgeon should be an ophthalmologist with cataract and lens surgery as their daily work rather than a laser-correction specialist who also does cataracts. An international hospital accreditation such as JCI describes the hospital's processes, not the surgeon's hands.

Then the questions that separate clinics in practice: which biometer they use and whether they measure both eyes on the day; which lens brands they stock and whether the surgeon will argue you out of a trifocal if your eye does not suit it; what the plan is if the lens power is off and you end up needing glasses you were told you would not; who sees you the next day; and who answers the phone once you are home. Reviews from patients who had cataract surgery, rather than the clinic's laser or dental patients, are the ones to read, and Turkish patients' reviews count as much as foreign ones because the same surgeon operates on both.

Most people see better within days and are back to desk work and gentle walking within the week; the eye keeps settling for weeks, which is why the new glasses prescription waits. The drops are the treatment during that time: an antibiotic for the first stretch and an anti-inflammatory for longer, on the written schedule, and the most common cause of a bad recovery is stopping them early. Keep water, soap and make-up out of the eye for the first week, do not rub it, wear the shield at night as long as the surgeon says, and hold off swimming, dusty work and heavy lifting until you are cleared. Driving resumes when your vision meets the legal standard and you feel confident, which for most people is within days of the second eye.

The one thing to arrange before you leave home is who checks the eye afterwards. An optometrist can measure the pressure and the vision and refer you on; an ophthalmologist can treat. Tell them in advance that you are having surgery abroad and bring the operation report, because a clinician who knows the lens model and power can sort out a glasses prescription or a capsule opacification without guessing. Pain, a sudden drop in vision, a red eye that is getting worse, or new floaters and flashes are same-day problems, and the answer is the nearest eye emergency service, not a message to Turkey.