cataracts

[Jenny214]

I am having cataract surgery in February 2008 in my right eye- my Doc recommends Restor IOL lens.  8 years ago I had the surgery in my left eye and had a mono lens implanted with no problems.  I want to be able to see perfectly as I do with my left eye and also drive at night.  I don't mind wearing glasses although not wearing glasses would be ideal.  I have an astigmatism and my eye is spherical.  Your comments please. I am 68 years old.

[Ashley52]

I have a ReStor lens in my right (non-dominant) eye and I am very happy with it.  My other eye has a Crystalens that has not lived up to it's promise. I do have to say that both together are giving me a good result.  I still need to have the limbal relaxing incisions in my Crystalens eye to reduce my astigmatism but I'm hopeful to have good intermediate vision when that is done.  My near vision with the ReStor eye is good enough but darker and crisper if I choose to wear readers.  I can see why many doctors are mixing the IOL's because the limitations of one help make up for the other.  While halos at night are quite pronounced with the ReStor eye, they are not bad at all when combined with the Crystalens.  If I had 2 ReStor's I would likely be very unhappy about the night vision.  The Crystalens is not accomodating to give me reading vision, but the ReStor's reading capability is making that less of an issue. I don't have any experience with monofocal lenses, but my sister has them and elected monovision and she is quite happy. Talk to your surgeon about all these things, only you and he/she can decide what will work best for you.

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

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[JodieJ]

Dr. Hagan and Dr. Kutryb both discuss "blended vision" with monofocal IOLs elsewhere on this forum.  This type of correction would give you good distance and intermediate vision and good enough near vision for many social situations (e.g., reading restaurant menus).  This might be ideal for you, and you could avoid the risks associated with ReStor (long adaptation time, night vision problems, etc.)  I assume that you're going to have some type of refractive procedure such as limbal relaxing incisions to reduce/eliminate your astigmatism.    

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

If it were me I would go with another monofocal. Use the search feature and look up all the problems with the ReStor IOLs. It is far from a perfect IOL

JCH III MD