Doctors at Shanghai Marine 411 Hospital successfully removed the cataracts from both eyes of a 101-year-old woman last week.
The old woman, Zhu Baohua, from East China's Jiangsu Province, had suffered from serious cataracts in both eyes for about 20 years.
"We were worried about accepting such an old patient, the first case of its kind for this hospital. Usually, such operations on patients over 90 are very risky," said professor Jing Ming.
Besides serious cataracts, her corneas were also badly deteriorated and the intraocular pressure was much lower than the normal level. Jing said there were also fears that her physical condition would fail to endure the operation.
The operation only lasted for about ten minutes and was very successful. Two days later, Zhu could read a newspaper by herself.
(Shanghai Star March 18, 2003)
