Refractive is a term used to describe whether an eye needs perception glasses to see clearly. People with nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism have a refractive error. Standard cataract surgery has the purpose of removing the cloudy cataract allowing more light into the eye. Refractive cataract surgery also has the goal of leaving a person free from, or less dependent on glasses by eliminating all nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism at the time of cataract surgery.