Tuesday 18 February 2020

Multifocal Intraocular Lenses for Cataract Surgery

During lens surgery, natural lens are replaced by prosthetic lenses, which is Intraocular lenses (IOL), such as surgeries are performed to remove cataracts. In cataract surgery, the natural lens is removed to place a different clear lens in the position of the natural lens. Cataract patients were offered a lens called monofocal implantable lens that was not designed to make improvement in both near and distance vision, either near vision or distance vision in the past. Many patients used to chose the distance vision. Bifocals and reading glasses was the convenient requirement for near focusing and intermediate back then. Nowadays, multifocal intraocular lenses are replacing monofocal intraocular lenses because this surgery allows correction at all distances and making vision possible like natural vision. These lenses are often referred to as presbyopia-correcting IOLs.


The various types currently available are usually divided into two groups, accommodating IOLs and multifocal IOLs.

Accommodating IOLs
These IOLs are structured to work with the ciliary body, is a small muscle inside the eye. The ciliary body is a part of our normal near point focusing mechanism that we use throughout our lives. When we look anything closer or we attempt to focus on close range, these muscle contracts each time we see. Whenever, the muscles contracts, it allows our natural lens to change shape and increase power to bring near items into focus.

Multifocal IOLs
These lenses are designed in such a way to allow for intermediate, distance, and near focusing and it does not depend on the ciliary body muscle. The focusing power provided by these lenses is different than normal focusing that most people had during their younger adult life. Most of these lenses have some type of concentric rings etched into the surface that allows images at all distances to be focused on the retina. Because of this, it takes a little longer for people to adapt to them. Therefore, the brain must adapt to this new way of focusing. However, they work surprisingly well.


Organizations such as Amrit Hospital have the best doctor’s like Dr. Lalit Kumar, MBBS, MS (OPH) can provide resources and support to help you fully cure your vision problem.


Blog reviewed by: Dr. Lalit Kumar
Mail Us: amrithospitalchennai@gmail.com