Lens Implants
Dr. Peter Cornell and Dr. Stuart Stoll are pleased to offer their Beverly Hills area patients far more than laser eye surgery at their LASIK center. They also have considerable experience in lens implant technology, and offer a wide variety of lenses to suit every patient’s individual needs.
 Intraocular Lenses
Intraocular lenses are primarily used to replace the natural lens, either during cataract surgery or during a refractive lens exchange. There are also phakic refractive lenses available that may allow patients that otherwise might not be candidates for laser vision correction to reduce or eliminate their dependence on glasses. The best option to reduce dependence on reading glasses is often conductive keratoplasty, rather than an intraocular lens or laser vision correction.
Refractive Cataract Surgery and Intraocular Lens Implantation
Cataracts are a common eye problem (most often associated with aging) that cause the eye's lens to become cloudy. In patients who fail to receive treatment, cataracts can make reading, driving, and other daily activities more challenging, and in more severe cases it can cause a patient to lose his vision.
Recent advances in technology have made cataract surgery a successful way to correct refractive eye problems. As part of surgery, the eye's cloudy, natural lens is removed and replaced with a new, artificial one. This replacement lens is called an intraocular lens, or IOL. IOLs can correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, presbyopia (the need for reading glasses), and sometimes astigmatism. In addition, patients who undergo refractive cataract surgery (and receive IOLs) may no longer need glasses after surgery – even if they needed them prior to developing cataracts. Astigmatism can also be improved using limbal relaxing incisions (in older patients), LASIK, or a toric lens implant. Presbyopia may be improved using the Crystalens® , the ReStor® lens, the Rezoom lens, or monovision . Dr. Peter Cornell and Dr. Stuart Stoll at the Beverly Hills LASIK Center can determine if laser eye surgery or a lens implant treatment is right for you.
Return to Top
Refractive Lens Exchange
Refractive lens exchange is a procedure where the natural lens is removed from the eye and replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL) implant, even if there is no cataract.
It is essentially the same procedure as cataract surgery in terms of technique, risk, and recovery. It is currently used in cases of extreme farsightedness or nearsightedness, which are beyond the range of LASIK, and more commonly now, as a surgical solution to the need for reading glasses (presbyopia) in appropriate patients using either the ReStor®, Rezoom®, or the Crystalens® . Refractive lens exchange with IOL implants are quickly becoming a popular alternative to laser vision surgery.
There is an intraocular implant lens called the Array® Lens that can sometimes be used even if someone has already had cataract surgery in order to correct distance and reading vision. Refractive lens exchange has become more accepted as a viable alternative to other refractive procedures. If you would like to learn more about IOL implants or cataract surgery, and live in the Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or surrounding areas, or can come to our office in Beverly Hills, contact our LASIK Center today to schedule a consultation.
Return to Top
ReStor® Intraocular Implant Lens
The ReStor® intraocular implant lens is a new and exciting FDA approved intraocular lens implant. The ReStor® is a multifocal implant that uses apodized diffractive optics to provide most patients with very good distance and reading vision without glasses. In the FDA trials, 80% of patients with the ReStor® implant lens placed in both eyes did not require glasses for any activities of daily living. Patients who do a lot of visual tasks at an intermediate distance, such as computer work, may need weak magnifying glasses for the intermediate distance. The ReStor® lens does have a higher likelihood (5-10% significant) of some halo and glare effects around lights at night than seen with standard distance implant lenses, but patients are often happy to trade off these unwanted optical side effects for the benefit of being able to read without glasses.
The ReStor® implant lens can be used in conjunction with cataract surgery, and the patient is financially responsible for the additional cost of the presbyopia reducing portion of the procedure over and above what the insurance company covers for the procedure. The ReStor® is also available as a lens during a refractive lens exchange in appropriate patients who do not have any cataract formation.
Not all patients are candidates for the ReStor® implant lens, and if there is any significant astigmatism in the eye (where the surface of the eye is curved more in one direction than the other, shaped more like a teaspoon or a football than a round ball), then additional procedures may be required to reduce the astigmatism. If you would like to learn more about the ReStor® implant lens, or want to find out if you are a better candidate for ReStor® than for laser eye surgery, contact our office to schedule a consultation. Click here to learn more about ReStor® .
Return to Top
Rezoom Intraocular Implant Lens
The Rezoom intraocular implant lens is another multifocal lens which is similar to the Restor lens. The Rezoom lens also has good distance vision, and the reading vision is clear at a little further distance away than the Restor lens. The intermediate vision is generally better than with the Restor lens. The Rezoom lens otherwise shares most of the characteristics of the Restor lens, including the halo effects at night and a need for any astigmatism to be addressed with LASIK or limbal relaxing incisions for the lens to give good visual results.
Return to Top
Crystalens® Intraocular Implant Lens
The Crystalens® intraocular implant lens was the first lens approved in the United States by the FDA in 2004 for the reduction of presbyopia at the time of cataract surgery. This innovative implant lens is flexible, allowing it to move inside the eye.
This lens works very differently than the multifocal Restor and Rezoom lenses.
Patients who have the Crystalens® implanted in both eyes are generally able to achieve very good distance and intermediate (computer) vision without glasses. About half of Crystalens® patients do not need glasses for most reading tasks, and the other half generally use very weak magnifying glasses for reading tasks.
In 2004, our practice was the first in Beverly Hills to implant this lens, and the lens has performed very well in appropriate patients. The Crystalens® implant lens can be used in conjunction with cataract surgery, and the patient is financially responsible for the additional cost of the presbyopia reducing portion of the procedure over and above what the insurance company covers for the procedure. The Crystalens® is also available as a lens during a refractive lens exchange in appropriate patients who do not have any cataract formation.
Not all patients are candidates for the Crystalens® implant lens, and if there is any significant astigmatism in the eye (where the surface of the eye is curved more in one direction than the other, shaped more like a teaspoon or a football than a round ball), then additional procedures such as laser eye surgery may be required to reduce the astigmatism. If you would like to learn more about the Crystalens® implant lens, or want to find out if you are a good candidate for the procedure, contact our office to schedule a consultation. Click here to find out more about Crystalens® .
Return to Top
Array® Multifocal Intraocular Lens (IOL)
The Array® is an intraocular lens (IOL) that was designed to allow patients to see at all distances (near, far, and intermediate) following
cataract surgery . This lens is primarily used at this time as a piggyback lens to place over another implant lens to provide a multifocal effect in an eye that has already had cataract surgery.
Return to Top
Toric Implant Lenses
The FDA has approved a number of toric implant lenses for use in cataract surgery, and these lenses could also be used for a refractive lens exchange. A toric lens has an astigmatism correction made in the lens, and is therefore very effective at correcting astigmatism. If you have a lot of astigmatism (the eye is curved in one direction more than the other, shaped more like the back of a spoon than like a ball), and are contemplating cataract surgery or refractive lens exchange, then you must correct the astigmatism in order to see well without glasses. Astigmatism can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, LASIK or toric implant lenses. If you use a toric implant lens, you have two choices. You may choose to have both eyes corrected at distance, giving good distance vision without glasses, but you will still need reading glasses. Alternatively, you could consider a monovision correction, with one eye corrected at distance and one eye corrected for reading. However, if you wish to have the eyes working together with a presbyopic implant lens like the Crystalens, the Restor or the Rezoom, and you have astigmatism, you may need to consider a LASIK procedure to correct the astigmatism.
Return to Top
Phakic Intraocular Lens
Phakic Intraocular Lenses are a new and exciting technology that allows our doctors at the Beverly Hills LASIK Center to treat patients with refractive surgery who otherwise might not have had any options for reducing or eliminating their need for glasses or contact lenses. Phakic IOL is primarily used to treat very nearsighted (more than -10 diopters of myopia) or very farsighted (more than +5 diopters of farsightedness) patients. The procedure for Phakic IOL involves one of our doctors implanting a corrective implant lens inside a patient's eye, leaving the natural lens in place.
Return to Top
Implantable Contact Lens (ICL)
As of 2006, the implantable contact lens (ICL) will be available for implantation in very nearsighted patients.
ICLs are placed behind the eye's iris and allowed to float just in front of the natural lens. Another lens, called the Artisan® or Verisyse™ lens, is also available and can be attached to the iris. If you are interested, Dr. Peter Cornell or Dr. Stuart Stoll of the Beverly Hills LASIK Center can discuss these options with you in greater detail and determine if you are a better suited to this procedure, or another method such as laser eye surgery.
Return to Top
|
