Cataract surgery is one of the oldest surgical procedures known, first documented in the fifth century BC. [12] In ancient times, cataracts were treated with a technique called couching ...

[5] " As one would expect, this technique would not work on dense cataract and couching remained the widely performed surgery to treat cataract for many decades. [3] In 1747, a French ...

A cataract is when the natural lens inside the eye turns cloudy, leading to decreased vision. In the old days, cataract surgery was considered only when the cataract was ripe or fully mature.