Restor iol

I'm a 39 year old male, and have recently been diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye and one forming in my left. I recieved a second opinion and it was confirmed. The first doctor recomended using restor lenses for both eyes the second doctor recomends a monofocal in my right and would wait for the cataract in my left eye to develop more before removing it. my question is what you would recomend? I still am very active at night and do alot of night driving, I really need help making the right decision

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

Night driving will be a big problem with a multifocal lens like restor or rezoom.  Since you do a lot of night driving, a restor lens is not for you in my opinion and I also would not recommend it for just one eye.  Either way, I am a little surprised at the recommendation of the first surgeon.  If you have an aspheric monofocal lens set for distance vision, you need to understand that you will have very limited near vision and will require reading glasses for near work.  This is VERY IMPORTANT to understand.  As long as you understand that, then you will have much more realistic expectations.  Also, I always have a talk with the patient about the current prescription and vision that they have been used to most of their lives and how the cataract surgery will change it.  Some nearsighted people could get quite upset at losing near vision despite what some might call a perfect surgery with 20/20 distance vision.  A great result is meeting and exceeding patient expections - not always just 20/20 distance vision.

Michael Kutryb, MD

[Brendan1969]

thank you very much for the quick reponse ive always been nearsighted and have worn contacts for 20/20 distance vision but could'nt do any upclose work with them in so the monofocal lenses wont be a big change. reading glasses are a small price to pay to keep my night vision.

[FredZq]

I think excellent advice from the Doc.

I'm like you... always been a bit nearsighted and astigmatism too. Two weeks since I had my left eye cataract removed and a Tecnis acrylic aspheric monofocal lens installed. I asked for non-dominant eye to be set for near and the other (later to come for intermediate). So far the outcome is better than I imagined it could be.  

The Doc had no problem with that, although he pointed out that there is a margin of error and if the near sighted eye came in really near-sighted I probably wouldn't be very happy. In any case, it looks like the focus distance now is about 11 inches from the end of my nose, which is OK. I can still see fine w/o specs in the bathroom and kitchen. The other eye is presbyopic, so the difference in focus between the two takes some adjustment if I'm outside w/o specs on. But I could probably get by OK like this indefinitely, or at least until the other eye cataract progresses more.

I have not driven at night since the surgery, but I do  not notice any distortions in a darkened room with bright point source light. No haloes, diffraction rings, etc. Peripheral vision seems unaffected. I don't expect any difficulty with night vision.

I'm simply astounded at the outcome so far. Hope you have as good experience as I have so far.

p.s. also had the limbal relaxing incisions, and Doc says got rid of most of the astigmatism, which agrees with what I see.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

Thanks for sharing, Fredzq.  Your type of positive experience is what I hear every day for the most part.

Michael Kutryb, MD
Kutryb Eye Institute
Titusville, FL