Crystalens

Cataracts have plagued humans throughout history. In AD 29, the ancient Romans performed the first recorded cataract surgery. Since then people have been improving the methods of treating cataracts.

Cataracts have been treated by suctioning them from the lens as first done by an Iraqi surgeon in the middle ages, or the entire lens can be removed. The problem with removing the eye's natural lens is that replacing it with something that functions as well has consistently been very difficult. The lens is a flexible mass of transparent tissue, supported and surrounded by muscles that deform it to focus light. Man made optics contain lenses that do not deform, but move forward and back to focus light.

Crystalens is a type of hinged lens that mimics the ability of the eye's natural lens to deform and bend light. The ciliary muscles in the eye pull and push on the Crystalens, providing a greater range of focus than other lenses such as the toric intracocular lens.

Before Crystalens, when the a person's lenses were replaced, they would have had to opt for monovision. Monovision involves using a distance vision prescription on one eye and a near vision prescription on the other. Although this sounds strange, it works surprisingly well. There is usually a short adjustment while the brain gets used to interpreting the difference in perception bewteen the eyes. With all of the great features of monovision come a few disadvantages. Usually the vision of someone with monovision is not as clear for distance or close work as someone with bifocals. Crystalens solves this problem, since each eye has more range of focus.

Although the Crystalens procedure takes only about half an hour and is fairly simple for a competent eye surgeon, it is a surgical operation and therefore has a certain level of risk involved.