Has anyone needed and had cataract surgery in one eye with the Symphony lens?

[boulderdog]

I need cataract surgery in my left eye only. Someday my right eye will need surgery but probably not for a couple of years. The cataract in my left eye is moderate and directly in my line of sight. I'm considering the Symphony lens as it is highly recommended. I wear different pairs of glasses for distance (movies, driving, etc.) and reading. I'm very interested in hearing from anyone who wears glasses and has had cataract surgery in one eye only with the Symphony lens (or with another lens). Did you have problems with your eyes learning to work together? Do you continue to wear glasses? Do you have a prescription in one glass lens for the eye not operated on and clear glass in the other? How does this work?

[SoftwareDeveloper]

Are you able to wear contact lenses? If so then wearing a contact lens one your other eye may be a better option for you, since it avoids a problem that might arise with glasses. If you hadn't tried contact lenses recently (some people try them when young and never bother again if they didn't like them), they are more comfortable now than they were in the past.

Do you know the prescription for your glasses? The major concern would be if there is a major difference in lens powers between your two eyes, if you have a high prescription now.  A lens in a pair of glasses not only changes the focal point, it changes the size of the perceived image, magnifying it or minifying it (which it does depends on whether you are nearsighted or farsighted), and how much the size changes depends on the power of the lens. The brain can adapt to small differences in image sizes between the two eyes, but larger differences can be harder, or not possible, to adapt to. How much difference each person can tolerate varies.

. e.g. if the eye they operated on is left with perfect distance vision, and your other eye has a prescription of -6D, for most people having a 0 power lens for one eye in a pair of glasses and a -6D lens in the other   would lead to too much of a difference in image size. They do make special glasses that can compensate for some level of difference, but I haven't had reason to look into it. To search for information, the issue anisometropia (  having eyes with different powers) leading to glasses inducing aniseikonia (a difference in perceived image size) to a problematic degree.  

The amount the image size changes relates to how far a lens is from the eye. A contact lens on the surface of the eye doesn't change the image size enough to be a problem for most people, which is why often people who only get cataract surgery for one eye wear a contact lens on the other.

Another option to address the concern  depends on what your prescription is. For instance  if you are only mildly nearsighted, e.g. say -2.5D, then you might consider leaving your operated on eye slightly nearsighted, say -1D, which means there will be less of a difference in powers if you correct both eyes for distance with glasses. That would let you eventually get your 2nd eye set for perfect distance vision, and leave you with micro-monovision, one eye set a bit nearer in to give you a bit more near vision while the other eye gives you perfect distance vision.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[MrPresley]

I am doing the same thing in March but am going with a mono focus IOL for distance correction.  My intent is to wear a contact lens in my right eye, also for distance correction, and use reading glasses for close up.

[JohnHaganMD]

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