A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s natural lens, which lies behind the iris and the pupil. Surgery needs to be performed when the cataracts have progressed enough to seriously impair the vision and affect the daily life.
Prior to advances in cataract surgery, the natural lens that had been removed wasn’t replaced with an artificial one, so after the surgery it was necessary to wear very thick eyeglasses or special contact lenses in order to see. Since the mid-1960s the lens has been replaced with an Intraocular Lens (IOL) that is surgically implanted in the eye.
The lens used for these replacements has been for years a monofocal lens meaning they offer vision at one distance only (far, intermediate or near). They definitely are an improvement over the cataractous lens that is replaced during surgery, which provides only cloudy, blurred vision at any distance.
But with the use of traditional or standard IOLs you must wear eyeglasses or contact lenses in order to read, use a computer or view objects in the middle distance. There are new “bifocal” implants that allow each eye to see well at near, far, and everything in between so most people will never need glasses again.
Today, one of the options available and the one I prefer is the Acrysoft® ReStor multifocal lens, which can improve vision in a full range of distances from near to far.
The Acrysoft ReStor lens is a breakthrough lens that lets patients see from near to far usually without glasses. An innovative optical technology called “apodization” makes the Acrysoft Restor lens uniquely effective, especially when placed in both eyes. A similar technology has been used for years in microscopes and telescopes to improve image quality and has now been patented for use in intraocular lenses by Alcon®.
Ninety-four percent of patients who have these lenses said they would have the lenses implanted again and four out of five recipients reported never wearing glasses after having the lens placed in both eyes.
Anyone wanting to get rid of bifocals (with or without cataract) is a candidate for this multifocal IOLs or any patient with an otherwise normal eye exam who needs cataract surgery and wants less dependence on glasses. Another one of the IOL lenses available is called the Acrysoft® Toric. This lens is used for the treatment of astigmatism.
Corneal astigmatism is a common irregularity in which the surface of the cornea is curved more like a football with both flatter and steeper curves. When the surface of the cornea has an uneven curvature, vision becomes distorted because the light rays are not focused at one spot to provide clear vision. If freedom from eyeglasses for distance vision is important to a patient this would be an option to consider.
The lens is made of a biocompatible lens material already implanted in more than 25 million eyes since 1991. A person who has both a cataract and a corneal astigmatism will not regain high-quality distance vision after cataract surgery unless the astigmatism is also corrected.
In a replacement lens exchange (RLE), your eye’s natural lens is replaced with an IOL to achieve sharper focus. This procedure is done mainly on people who are middle-aged or older that may or may not have the beginnings of cataracts.
If you have early cataracts, you could choose to have a refractive lens exchange instead of waiting for the cataracts to advance enough to require cataract surgery. Artificial (intraocular) lenses likely can provide significantly better uncorrected vision at that point, especially if you now require vision correction with glasses or contact lenses for near vision.
