Consent

Most important part of pre-operative visit
Talk them through the procedure briefly -- use the words: shot, cut, and stitches in your discussion

Tell them:

we can usually place a plastic lens in the eye.
no we don't use the laser (much confusion about the Yag for secondary cataract)
we will patch their eye overnight following the surgery
we will see them at 1 day, 1 week, and 6 weeks post op if all goes well
we will prescribe new glasses when they are stable -- usually 2 mos. post op

Benefits:

90 % better than 20/40, 96% better vision than pre-op (DesMoines ECCE data)
I lower these percents with increasing retinal disease

Risks:

3% vision worse than pre-op (DesMoines ECCE data)

use the words:

death (<1:100,000), loss of eye (<1:10,000), irregular pupil (1:10)
after cataract (1:5 requiring laser in 2 years)