Restor Lens Replacement for Presbyopia Patients WITHOUT cateracts

When I asked my doctor about Lasik surgery to correct my Presbyopia so I could drive at night and see my own Powerpoint presentations as a Trainer, he recommended replacing the lenses with which I was born with Restor Lens.  He asserted that Lasik would correct my distance vision but I would still need reading glasses.  I do not have cateracts and my eyes were(are) extremely healthy accept for the normal deterioration in vision that comes with age.  The prospect of being able to discard my glasses altogether forever is extremenly attractive.   My doctor advised me that everyone eventually gets cataracts and that if I  have my lenses replaced now at age 61, I would never have to have cateract surgery.  So upon his recommendation, I had both lenses replaced with Restor Lens. over a month ago.  My mid-range vision has improved exponentially.  I can work at the computer for hours and I can read menus again without glasses which I haven't done in years.  My ability to read though is greatly reduced and I can't drive or see the TV any better than I could before the surgery.  But at least before,m I had glasses to correct for the problem.  Now, my vision fades in an out, I see things with halos and double and triple imaging, and night driving is like driving though the aurora borealis.  My visual range is much worse post surgery and now my doctor cannot figure out  what to do to correct it.  Of course hind sight is 20/20 and I should have asked these questions before surgery but it did not occur to me that I needed to.  Is Restor Lens replacement ordinarily recommended for younger prebyopia refractive patiens with healthy eyes (no cataracts)?  Assuming everything is normal, can I expect my vision to improve in time?  Are there any substantive sources of research that you can direct me to regarding the side effercts of this type of surgery NOT funded by the manufacturer? Thank you.    

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

The Restor lens is one option for someone in that 50 - 65 year-old pre-cataract stage.  The procedure would be called clear lens extraction (basically cataract surgery with implant before cataract is clinically ready for cataract surgery.)  The surgery is not covered by insurance and is considered elective, cosmetic type surgery.  The upside sounds great on paper and many patients are able to see distance and read without glasses.  The downside is that intermediate vision can be less than desired and distance vision can lose some contrast sensitivity.  Also driving vision can be very difficult at night due to glare and halos and decreased vision.  Lens may be best suited for someone who likes to stay indoors and read a lot, easygoing personality, easy to please, 1moderately  to highly farsighted (hyperopia) as they are usually thrilled with any improvement in their previous terrible near and distance uncorrected vision.  Myopic or nearsighted patients can be diffiult to please because they may not achieve the excellent uncorrected near vison they had before surgery.  Your problems, it seems are not because the Restor is problematic lens (although it does have real limitations) but rather that you may not have been a very good candidate to begin.  I suspect that you  may have been myopic or nearsighted.  You are not going to find too much negative press about these type of lenses because they did go through a stringent and lenghty FDA approval process.  But, please know that your symptoms are not unusual, you are not alone as the posts on this site and others will attest to.  If you look at the schematics of the lens with its diffractive rings - you can intuitively see where there could be some problems with decreased vision, glare, halos and decreased contrast sensitivity in some patients.  Finally, centration, residual refractive error and pupil size can play an important role in your visual performance with restor.  Have an experienced restor surgeon discuss your issues with you to see if there is any chance of making things better.

Michael Kutryb, MD