new advances in lens implants

[cellio]

According to this article, researchers are now testing a new kind of occular lens implant, one they describe as "multi-focus". This means that people who have cataract surgery and get these new lenses don't need glasses. (Until now, lens implants have a fixed focal distance, so you still need glasses sometimes.) Nifty! I'd love to know how they're doing that!

The article mentions in passing that while most people develop cataracts as they age, some are born with congenital cataracts, and that this latter group is the researcher's area of speciality. This got my attention and queued up my hopes.

Frustratingly, they then say nothing else about this aspect. And what I really want to know is: can these new implants work for people who had cataract surgery as children? If so, once they've spent a decade or so working out the bugs (beta tester? I don't think so!), this is exactly the sort of development that could make an enormous difference for me. (The barrier until now, as I understand it, has been that they can't put implants into eyes that have been without lenses as long as mine have.)

I'll have to pump my opthamologist for information about this. It's been a while since I've pestered her anyway.

Comments

[lefkowitzga.livejournal.com]

I went on PubMed, run by the National Library of Medicine, and put "multifocal lens implant" in the search line. It came up with 13 references. You might want to look through these and take pertinent references to your ophthalmologist.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/