ABSTRACT
Cataract is a lenticular opacity, either partial or total, that causes visual impairment. The great variety of metabolic insults that can cause cataracts and the biochemical basis of human senile cataract have been described in detail by Harding (18) and by Chylack and Cheng (9). This chapter is based on the chapter by Elaine Berman in the previous edition (2), and also borrows heavily from my own book on cataract (18). A complete discussion of this vast subject was beyond the scope of Berman’s chapter, and only certain topics were selected for inclusion. My book was more comprehensive and covered all the major experimentally induced cataracts as well as human cataract. It was pointed out that many biochemical and other changes were common to many of the experimental cataracts and to human cataract, leading to the conclusion that there are common pathways in cataractogenesis.
