Refractive Lens Exchange

What are the choices of Lens Implants?

The choice of lens implant is very much dependent on your lifestyle. In the Medical Eye Clinic, we take great care to understand your lifestyle requirements and to do our best to match the choice of lens implants to your lifestyle. We ask that you kindly complete a questionnaire when you come to see us to consider Refractive Lens Surgery:

After a comprehensive assessment of your eyes and careful discussion of your lifestyle requirements, the following are the most common Lens Implant options:

1- Distance Monovision Implants in both eyes

This option is suitable for you if you have a predominantly ‘outdoor’ lifestyle and choose to have clear distance vision. With Distance Monovision Implants in both eyes, you are likely to be able to enjoy spectacle-free clear distance vision, and need to use Readers for reading and near distance work.

The Zeiss CT monodocal lens will be used to achieve this Refractive Lens Exchange option.

2 – Blended Monovision Implants

With this option, the ‘dominant’ eye is implanted with a Monovision Lens to achieve Distance vision, and the ‘non-dominant’ fellow eye is implanted with a Monovision Lens to achieve Near vision.

This option is most suitable if you are already used to a blended Monovision arrangement with your contact lens or glasses prescriptions.

At the Medical Eye Clinic, we also use the Zeiss CT Lucia 611 Lens, a technologically advanced Mono-focal lens that can be introduced in to the eye through a small 2.4mm incision, and whose superior optical properties give unsurpassed clear vision at the desired distance.

3 – Toric Lens Implant

If you have significant Astigmatism (more than 1.0 -1.50 Dioptre), a precisely implanted and aligned Zeiss AT TORBI Toric Lens can be used to achieve clear focus in the astigmatic meridian.

The Medical Eye Clinic is the first private Eye Clinic in the U.K. to adopt the Zeiss Callisto image-guidance Toric alignment system, to achieve precise alignment of Toric lens Implants to the Astigmatic Meridian, and remains the only Private facility in the Exeter area to have this.

Multifocal Toric Lens Implants are also available if you have significant astigmatism and wishes to achieve Multifocal vision in both eyes.

4 – Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF) Implant

This new generation of refractive Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF) implant is increasingly the optimal choice of implant for refractive lens surgery.

These implants give an extended depth of focus from distance to intermediate vision, making this a useful lifestyle choice for many patients. They have the advantage over the older generation “diffractive, light-splitting” EDOF lenses in generating a “halo-free” clear vision. These lenses are well tolerated and achieve comfortable clear vision for many patients.

They are also available in Toric format to treat any coexisting astigmatism.

5 – Multifocal Lens Implants

This is another option to help facilitate a ‘Glasses Independent’ lifestyle.

As the only Zeiss Reference Centre in the South West, The Medical Eye Clinic uses the technologically advanced Zeiss AT LISA TRI Lens to achieve simultaneous Distance, Intermediate and Near focus in both eyes.

What are the alternatives to Refractive Lens Exchange Surgery?

The alternatives to Refractive Lens Exchange Surgery are:

• Continue to wear glasses
• Continue to wear contact lenses
• Refractive surgery on the Cornea may be appropriate for people with certain type of refractive error.

What are the potential complications?

Modern refractive lens exchange surgery consistently achieves good outcomes and is amongst the safest operations that are frequently performed today. However, all surgical procedures can have potential complications. It is possible for a cataract operation to leave you worse off than you are now. One person in every 1000 will have a sight threatening problem in that eye as a direct result of the operation.