A: Tremendously. In the early days of cataract surgery, the only thing that surgeons could do was remove the cloudy lens. Without a lens inside their eye, patients had to wear very thick “Coke bottle” glasses to see.The most important change has been the development and improvement of artificial replacement lenses.: Tremendously. In the early days of cataract surgery, the only thing that surgeons could do was remove the cloudy lens. Without a lens inside their eye, patients had to wear very thick “Coke bottle” glasses to see.