Refractive Lens Options

Phakic Lens Implants (Visian ICL)
The phakic lens implant procedure and cataract surgery are similar because in both procedures, the surgeon makes a small incision to access the anterior chamber in which the iris and the natural lens of the eye are found. In cataract surgery, the surgeon removes the natural lens, and replaces it with an artificial lens. During phakic lens implant surgery, the surgeon keeps the natural lens intact and places an artificial lens in front of the natural lens. For specific patients, the phakic lens implant procedure is more predictable than LASIK, and a safer procedure for correcting high levels of near-sightedness.

Clear Lens Extraction
Clear lens extraction is performed exactly like modern day cataract surgery. This brief outpatient procedure is completed in just minutes, and is typically done under topical (numbing drops) anesthesia. Clear lens extraction describes a method of refractive correction in which the natural lens of the eye is removed, and a new lens implant is placed into the eye. This lens implant is specifically calculated to correct most or all of the patient’s nearsightedness or farsightedness, and will remain permanently. It is very well tolerated by the eye, and does not require cleaning or replacement. Since the natural lens does not grow back, cataract surgery will not be necessary in the future.

This procedure is ideal for those patients with medical conditions or prescriptions which do not allow laser vision correction as an option. For many patients, this procedure (unlike laser vision correction) allows for the implantation of a bifocal lens implant, which may provide the opportunity for BOTH distance and near vision with much less dependency on glasses or contact lenses, even after the onset of presbyopia (need for reading glasses). Unlike monovision patients who depend on one eye for distance and the other for near, the bifocal lens implant provides binocular distance and near vision, without limiting depth perception.