What Is a Posterior Subcapsular Cataract?

Quick answer: A posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) forms when proteins clump at the back of the eye's lens. Unlike typical age-related cataracts, it can develop quickly (over months), tends to affect younger people, and has specific risk factors like steroid use and diabetes. It's treated with the same highly successful cataract surgery.

What PSC is

PSC is the least common of the three main cataract types (the others are cortical and nuclear), found in about 3% of people. The clumped proteins scatter light before it reaches the retina, reducing vision, and PSC can progress rapidly. See the other cataract symptoms.

Causes and risk factors

• Diabetes or skin conditions like atopic dermatitis
• Long-term corticosteroid use
• Eye inflammation (uveitis, retinitis pigmentosa), radiation, or trauma
• Excess UV exposure
• High myopia
• Smoking, heavy alcohol use, obesity, and poor diet

How PSC is treated

Like other cataracts, PSC is treated by removing the clouded lens and replacing it with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL), once it affects vision enough. Cataract surgery is a roughly 15-minute office procedure with a virtually 100% success rate; you're awake but feel nothing thanks to numbing drops, and recovery takes about eight weeks. If cloudiness returns later, a quick YAG laser resolves it.

Cataract care at West Boca Eye Center

West Boca Eye Center in Boca Raton, led by Dr. Brent Bellotte, diagnoses and treats all cataract types. Learn more about cataract surgery.