Implants

RLE and Phakic IOL

An implant may be the procedure of choice for patients who are too nearsighted, too farsighted, or have corneas that are too thin for laser vision correction. An implant either replaces or helps your natural lens, and adjusts the focus of your vision so you see more clearly. When we are young, the natural lens inside the eye changes to help us see clearly in the distance and up close. This is called “accommodation”. For this age group, the best implant procedure is usually a Phakic IOL. Then, around age 40, the natural lens gradually loses its ability to change shape. This condition is called “presbyopia”. For this group, Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) should be considered.

Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE)
Phakic IOL

RLE

Refractive Lens Exchange

Refractive Lens Exchange is performed as an outpatient procedure and corrects nearsightedness, farsightedness, and sometimes presbyopia, using an intraocular lens implant to replace the natural lens inside your eye. RLE is an especially viable alternative for those over the age of 40 who are presbyopic or may be showing signs of developing cataracts.

Most patients over the age of 45 who are nearsighted or farsighted are also presbyopic. Presbyopia is a condition that prevents the eyes natural lens from changing shape. Close work gradually becomes more difficult. In order to restore full vision, presbyopia-correcting IOLs are designed to provide a continuous range of vision for distance, intermediate, near and everything in-between.

ReStor
Crystalens
ReZoom

Phakic IOL
Verisyse & Visian ICL

’Phakic‘ refers to an eye that still has its natural lens in place. ’Aphakic‘ refers to an eye that has had its natural lens removed. Therefore, a Phakic IOL is an artificial Intraocular Lens (IOL) that is implanted inside the eye without removing the eye‘s natural lens.

Both the cornea and the lens are responsible for focusing light images on the retina. The most common surgery, LASIK and ASA (PRK), change the focusing power of the eye by removing tissue from the cornea. For those who were too nearsighted or farsighted to have their corneas reshaped, an intraocular procedure that replaced the natural lens with an IOL was the only viable alternative — until now.

Phakic IOLs are ideal for younger patients whose natural lens can still change shape. Phakic IOLs can be thought of as implantable contact lenses. Some Phakic IOLs are designed to be placed in front of the iris (colored part of the eye) while others are designed to be placed behind the iris.

Verisyse
Visian ICL