Implantable Collamer Lenses Might Replace LASIK

Advances in Implantable Lenses have made vision correction surgery available to more people and could someday overtake LASIK in number of procedures.

San Leandro, CA (PRWEB) November 2, 2006 -- While LASIK is the most popular form of surgical vision correction today with more than a million Americans undergoing the procedure each year, that might change in the near future. Implantable Collamer Lenses (commonly known as Phakic Intra-Ocular Lenses), such as Visian ICL, might be the next wave of vision treatments. Unlike LASIK, Implantable Collamer Lenses can treat high amounts of near-sightedness, dry eyes, thin corneas, and possibly even patients with diseases such as keratoconus.

Stephen Turner MD, a corneal specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports that the Visian ICL has been a miracle to many of his patients who were not candidates for LASIK eye surgery. As the first surgeon to offer this procedure in the Bay Area, Dr. Turner believes that this type of treatment will certainly grow in popularity. Already though the vision results have been excellent.

In a comparative study of patients who underwent LASIK or Visian ICL it was discovered that the Visian ICL not only compared favorably to LASIK surgery but in fact in many instances exceeded the results of measured visual acuity results of LASIK surgery.

Patients who were in the 8-12 range of myopia were discovered to favor Visian over LASIK in a majority of cases. While LASIK has been clinically approved for near-sighted prescriptions as high as -14.00, many doctors avoid LASIK in prescriptions higher than -8.00 or -9.00. Cases of high amounts of near-sightedness occasionally have problems with dry eye, glare, haloes, and even more serious complications such as corneal ectasias or loss of best corrected vision.

In one study of 769 eyes that underwent LASIK or Visian ICL, the results demonstrated that the Visian icl provided better quality of vision. After 1 year 90% of eyes (-8 to -12)that underwent treatment with the Visian ICL were able to read 20/20 visual acuity. LASIK eyes (-8 to -12) showed a much lower percentage of eyes seeing 20/20. While LASIK has a very high percentage of patients seeing 20/20 for low prescription cases (often more than 95% in cases below 3 diopters of near-sightedness), the success rates are lower for patients with high amounts of near-sightedness.

In fact, the Visian ICL has demonstrated that as many as 50% of patients will have vision that is significantly better than their glasses or contact lenses (1 line or more of increased best corrected visual acuity). While Wavefront custom LASIK has proven better results for LASIK, it still does not reach the level of improvement that is achieved by high myopes with a Visian ICL lens.

Not only are the results with a Visian ICL more accurate, but they are also more stable and more predictable. LASIK tends to cause vision fluctuations throughout the first year as the cornea’s tear film changes, healing occurs, and the shape of the cornea reacts to the thinning that occurred. Visian ICL showed a 99% stability in comparison to LASIK which was considered to be 91% stable.

Visian ICL is often recommended for patients with high amounts of near-sightedness, thin corneas, or irregular corneas. It can also be recommended for cases where dryness is a problem or where glare and haloes could cause serious difficulties.

Visian ICL and other phakic intraocular lenses are likely to increase in popularity. Advances in lens technology could eventually overtake LASIK technology. Lenses can avoid the need to thin the cornea (as in LASIK) and can be designed with superior optics. Lenses can also be placed closer to the nodal point of the eye (a central focusing point), allowing for greater magnification and improved acuity.

While LASIK surgery has been very effective in treating near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism, some people believe that the future of refractive eye surgery might lie in intraocular lenses, especially with reversible procedures such as the phakic intraocular lenses.

Look to see future advances in these lenses make headline news and eventually perhaps replace LASIK surgery as the standard for vision correction.

Dr. Stephen Turner has been performing Visian ICL surgeries since its FDA approval. He has office locations in San Leandro, San Francisco, San Jose, and Concord. You can find more about the Visian ICL at his website at www.turnereye.com.

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