Lifespan of Crystalens HD

I am scheduled for catatact surgery in about month's time. I would like to know a typical lifespan of impanted lenses. I understand that once implanted, they can not be removed or replaced at later date.

Also, are there any major advances in the pipeline for me to differ the surgery for 2-5 years.

Thank you

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Your information is wrong. Implants will survive far longer than the people they are implanted into. When removed its not because its getting old its  because its causing some sort of problem. IOLs can be removed and replaced but this is not common.

Use the search feature and archives to read about the increased complication rate of multifocal and accommodating IOLs over monofocal IOLs. We get 23 TIMES more complaints about these IOLs than the standard monofocal IOL.

Things change fast and in 2-5 years all types of IOLs will be better.

JCHMD

[share7]

Dr. Barry Seibel recommended that I get a crystalens implant a little over a year ago, and I hesitated because of the $4000 price tag, which is not covered by insurance.   One week ago, Dr. Kevin Miller's office at Jules Stein said that he does not do the crystalens, but instead uses the Alcon ReSTOR lens, requiring both astigmatism management and corneal astigmatism correction.   Dr. Miller's office does not require the astigmatism management, though it is highly recommended, if one chooses a monofocal lens.   Can someone please give me some iinformation about these two lenses -- that is, the crystalens and the ReSTOR -- the success rates, the problems associated with each of these lenses -- and the necessity of astigmatism management.  

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The new models of those IOLS:  Crystalens HD and ReStor +3.00 have improved the success rate a great deal over the old models and the (in my opinion) terrible ReZoom IOL.

They do however remain much more expensive and complication prone than a standard monofocal aspheric IOL.

Even with the new IOLs glasses are often needed for about 25% of the time.

JCH MD

[JodieJ]

Here's a non-professional opinion:  The ReStor provides a degraded quality of vision with a high risk of glare and halos (best case scenario).  It is a bifocal lens, with no intermediate vision zone.  I predict that multifocal IOLs like ReStor will be obsolete in a few years, and accommodating IOLs like the Crystalens will take over the presbyopia-correcting IOL market.

The Crystalens provides a better quality of vision than ReStor.  Expect to need glasses for prolonged reading or seeing small print (best case scenario.)  Both the ReStor and the Crystalens are MUCH more prone to post-surgery problems than monofocal IOLs.

Astigmatism will impair your uncorrected vision at all distances.

You need to educated yourself before you make a decision about which IOL to choose.  Use the search feature (upper right corner of your monitor) by typing in words like "ReStor" and "Crystalens."  Focus only on the 2009 threads.