Ask An Expert: Grades of Cataract

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Ask An Expert: Grades of Cataract

Question:

What are the different grades of cataract — what are a white, a black or a brown cataract? What is a posterior polar cataract?

Answer:

The second question is easier to answer. The lens of the eye is shaped like a discus that you would see in a track and field event. Some people are born with a white dot in the center of the back surface of this lens. These dots are usually small and do not grow. They rarely cause any problem with vision. They are called posterior polar cataracts.

The terms "white, black and brown" are usually not terms used by physicians to describe cataracts. When a cataract is mature and allows no vision, it can appear to be white in color. In older people, the lens can slowly acquire first a yellow then a bronze and finally a brownish color. But I have never heard of or seen a cataract that was actually black in color.

Don Bienfang, M.D, is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and the Senior Surgeon in the Department of Surgery and Chief of Neuro-Ophthalmology in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

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Last updated:	January 24, 2007

Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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