New Lenses can Reduce the Need for Glasses After Cataract Surgery

Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have reported the development of new lenses that can reduce the need for glasses after cataract surgery.

In cataract surgery, doctors remove a clouded natural lens from inside the eye and replacing it with a plastic one. While the operation itself hasn’t changed much over recent years, the plastic lenses have.

Now, new lenses have been developed that have the ability to reduce the need for glasses after surgery.

The study, entitled ‘The Aging Eye: Preventing and Treating Eye Disease’ explained the difference between old and new lenses.

It said that the older types of plastic lenses help people see well at one distance, be it close up, far away, or at a medium distance. Two newer types of lenses, accommodating and multifocal, let the eye focus at varying distances, so fewer patients need glasses for reading or distance vision.

The first type, accommodating intraocular lens, has hinges on its sides that allow it to move as the eye’s ciliary muscle contracts or relaxes, thus improving the ability to change focus from near to far.

The second type, multifocal intraocular lens, uses a new type of refractive technology to provide focus for multiple distances.

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This type has either small, concentric circular ridges that allow the eye to change its range of focus or broad zones to provide near, intermediate, and distance vision.

Source-ANI
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