Agnes Said:

I need a new eye lens. Lasik is not an option.?

We Answered:

Do you have amblyopia (lazy eye) in the eye without a lens? If your cataract developed pretty quickly after your infection, you probably don't. If you had the cataract for some time before they removed it, you may have it. Eyes that do not have a clear image during early childhood can't develop properly. Is your eye straight? Sometimes when there is not good vision in an eye, it turns in or out. If your eyes don't work together, improving the vision in the bad one may create more problems than it solves. There is also a good chance that the infection that caused your cataract also caused other damage to your eyes.
I would actually suggest an older technology. You should be for for a contact lens in that eye. Wearing a contact would give answers to many of the above questions. Successful contact lens wear could be a long term solution or it could give your surgeon more confidence that a secondary lens implant is a good idea.

Kirk Said:

Eye Lens Replacement?

We Answered:

Are you talking about cataract surgery? Did you have both eyes done or just one so far? If it is only one eye that needed to be done at the time,which is not uncommon, see about having the other one done. In many cases after one cataract surgery it can cause a big difference between the eyes as far as correction goes, and can be difficult to tolerate.
Some people end up with very little correction needed in the surgical eye while the other eye may still need a fair amount. All depends on what your vision was before the surgery. Usually once the I.O.L is in place it is there for good, unless there is a good reason for replacement, which is rare.

Morris Said:

has anyone had eye lens replacement surgery?

We Answered:

Lens replacement surgery is removing the eye lens to put an artificial lens in, surgery like that is performed for cataracts.


Good luck

Jackie Said:

What is the difference in lasik and the other eye surgeries out there?

We Answered:

Hard for an expert to answer simply, but i'll try. I assume you are interested in surgery for myopia so as to eliminate the need for glasses. Your age is important because over the age of 40, if you eliminate the myopia, you will need reading glasses. Whereas, if you remain myopic, you will always be able to see up close without glasses. If you are in your 20's (do not have the surgery until your eyes are fully grown), you will still need readers in your 40's. LASIK will rid you of myopia by using a LASER to reshape the cornea, but it is expensive and complications are possible. In
addition, it can cause problems later in life should you develop cataracts or glaucoma. It is not something you should have done without serious thought. I believe that what you mean by lens
replacement is removal of the normal lens of the eye which is what is done in cataract surgery. This will correct high myopia....
a prescription range of minus 11 to 14....which is pretty rareHowever, when the natural lens is removed, a plastic implant can be inserted which will give good vision without glasses....for
distance, but you still need reading glasses. There are implants that can give both near and far vision, but neither is as sharp as you might want. There are other operations that are experimental
such as putting an implant in an eye without taking out the natural lens, but the results are less than ideal and very few Ophthalmologists are doing it.
My advice, in general, is if you have two healthy eyes that need just some help to see with glasses or contacts (and you should NEVER keep them in longer than 18 hours without a 10 hour rest)
do not expose them to possible harm. The only possible exception is if you have to be a military pilot.

Melinda Said:

Inner eye lens replacement, my wife is investigating surgical methods to improve her eyesight.?

We Answered:

As the eye ages, the lens gets bigger. It gets bigger by adding layers onto the outer portions. This occurs inside a capsule that surrounds the lens fibers and it's inside this capsule or bag, that the new little plastic one is placed.

Since the lens gets bigger with age, it also gets stronger. So every few years...got to get new glasses because these things just don't work any more.

The numbers:
The eye is a simple camera. It is supposed to be focused at optical infinity...way off there 20-30 ft or so. If it is, that's called

Emmetropia.

If the light rays from way off there at infinity are focused in front of the retina, that means that the eye is stronger than the Emmetropic one. These people can see near-by pretty well, as they are already focused near. These are Myopes, or Myopic eyes or nearsighted eyes.

If the eye lens system (cornea and lens together) is weak, then the light rays from infinity don't get bent soon enough to hit the back of the eye, and they focus behind the eye. These people can bend their own lens as if in trying to read, and are then able to see at a far distance. But it takes work. So they get tired. To read, on top of all the work it is to see at a distance, they have to crank in even more energy, so they can't read for long periods without getting all sleepy, mind wanders...etc.

The number is according to the distance. It's equal to one over the distance in meters. or P=1/d

So if she were a +1.00, she'd have to work that much to see at a distance. That's 1/1 or one diopter.

For near sighted people, if focused at a meter in front of her, she'd need to move it out...she'd wear a -1.00. If she were focused at a half meter in front of her, -2.00. A third of a meter...-3.00. A forth of a meter -4.00.

With hyperopes, she needs to crank in +5.75 of bending power to see at a distance! To read she needs another +3.00 or so.

Since the lens gets stronger with age she'll become less and less far sighted and she'd use less and less power as she gets older. She'd probably only get about 3 diopters towards normal which would give her a +3.00 by the time she's 80 or so.

Correcting a hyperope with an intraocular lens is just simple cataract surgery, without the cataract. It's the same surgery, but the lens that's placed inside the eye to replace the one that's being removed, is stronger than the 'normal' ones.

So if a normal lens being placed in the eye is a +20.00 which is more or less what they use, she'll need a +25.00 or 26.00 power lens and she'll see just fine. And it's no different than placing the normal one...none.

The phakic IOL's that are being used are lenses placed in front of the normal lens without removing the normal lens. The complication, or main complication is cataract, which is just a foggy lens. So if one is going to invade the intraocular space, why not do it once and be done? Two invasive procedures just increases risk.

These lenses are 'permanent'. Once they have been placed, even 'in the bag' which is the way it's done now, it scars way out to the sides, and to remove one is really a lot more difficult than putting one in. Ya have to cut the little arms, remove scar tissue..., probably remove portions of the old capsule...getting risky...things go wrong...retinal detachments, glaucoma...stuff like that.

When the new lens is put in the eye, that's the new fixed focus lens. It's a piece of plastic or polythis or polythat or silicone or ? Whatever it is, that's IT. So if it's too strong, one is a little bit nearsighted. If it's still too weak even after adding all that extra power, she'd still be a little far sighted and need to over correct the difference...Which would be like a +1.00 or a +0.75 or whatever. She'd still be able to see the clock across the room, the watch...etc. a LOT better than she is now where she can't see anything without the glasses, and losing them is just a nightmare cuz ya can't find them cuz ya can't see well enough....very, very frustrating.

The part that's new, is doing IOL's to people that don't have cataracts. The don't have that 'condition'.

Just replacing the clear normal lens with a new lens. And yes there are multifocal lenses, but so far, these people have lots of glare at night with car lights...stuff like that. Then again, some are pleased as can be.