All About Cataracts

International eye care company Bausch & Lomb announced today the launch of a new consumer ad campaign for its Crystalens accommodating intraocular lens.

Ads will begin appearing today on national cable television markets in New York, Florida, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ads will also appear in national magazines.

Crystalens is currently the only FDA-approved accommodating intraocular lens (IOL). It is designed to provide a full range of vision after cataract surgery, eliminating the loss of near vision and need for reading glasses caused by presbyopia.

“The advertising encourages patients to talk to their ophthalmologist about whether they are candidates for Crystalens or to visit the Crystalens website to learn more about this exciting vision correction alternative,” said Amy Jacobs, director of Global Marketing for Crystalens, in a press release issued by the company.

“Bad vision doesn’t have to be part of getting older. The Crystalens allows cataract patients the opportunity not just to fix their eyesight, but to make it better,” added Ms. Jacobs.

To learn more about Crystalens, visit the company’s website for the product or call 1-877-SEE-BETTER.

An innovative light-adjustable intraocular lens (IOL) may be the answer to correcting residual refractive errors after cataract surgery, based on the findings of a new study.

Researchers in California and Tijuana, Mexico, conducted a prospective study of 14 subjects who had unilateral cataract surgery with implantation of a proprietary light-adjustable IOL.

The light-adjustable lens (LAL), based on technology developed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and California Institute of Technology, is made of photosensitive silicone that enables the shape of the lens to be altered in a predictable manner when exposed to a special beam of light. This adjustment can take place days or weeks after cataract surgery when the eye has healed.

By adjusting the shape of the LAL after surgery, the cataract surgeon can reduce or eliminate residual refractive errors such as nearsightedness and farsightedness that may remain after the cataract procedure.

In the study, LALs were implanted during cataract surgery in a manner to intentionally produce up to -1.50 diopters (D) of residual myopia after the procedure. The lenses were then treated with light produced by a digital light delivery device to correct the residual myopia and lock-in the correction.

Analysis of the study data revealed:

• The day after adjusting the LAL and locking in the correction, 13 eyes (92.9 percent) were within 0.25 D of the target refraction.
• Up to 9 months after treatment, 14 eyes (100 percent) remained within 0.50 D of the target refraction.
• During the 9 month follow-up period, no eye had more than a 0.25 D change in refraction.

The researchers concluded that residual myopia up to -1.50 D can be successfully treated (resulting in significant improvement in uncorrected visual acuity) using the light-adjustable lens technology, thereby reducing the need for prescription eyeglasses after cataract surgery.

The full report of the study (”Correction of myopia after cataract surgery with a light-adjustable lens”) is published in the August 2009 issue of Ophthalmology.

Note: The LAL technology evaluated in this study is not yet FDA-approved for use in cataract surgery performed in the United States.