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Summary A 12-year-old panda slowly recovers after surgery to remove cataracts in both eyes.
Ophthalmologists successfully performed an eye surgery on a 12-year old male panda in Shanghai on Thursday, state television CCTV reported.Pengpeng, resident panda in the Shanghai Zoo, was losing its ability to see due to the cataract of his eyes becoming progressively opaque, CCTV said. Doctors removed Pengpengs cataracts, lenses and damaged eye tissue, but were unable to give him replacement lenses as they had no suitable substitutes. Because of this, the panda would never regain sharp vision despite recovering a clearer perception of of light, CCTV said.But doctors said that the operation was successful as it would still have improved their furry patients vision substantially after the initial healing stages.I think the haemorrhage in the fundus oculi will disappear within a week or two. After that, his eyesight will be much better, Ji Yinghong, an ophthalmologist at the hospital said. The pandas keepers are optimistic about the result of the one-hour surgery, and will be monitoring his condition in the coming weeks.
