vision restored Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Choose the Right Artificial Lens for Your Cataract Surgery

The AHA! Team — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 06:35:31 +0000

Larissa Biggers via Duke Health – Cataract surgery involves removing a clouded lens and replacing it with an artificial intraocular lens (also called an IOL) to improve your vision. However, not all IOLs are the same. Cataract surgery involves removing a clouded lens and replacing it with an artificial intraocular lens (also called an IOL) to improve your vision. However, not all IOLs are the same. Some can help you see near or far even better. Choosing the right lens for you can be confusing. Here, Duke corneal specialist, Terry Kim, MD, explains your options. What are my intraocular lens options? You have a one-time opportunity to select the lens that’s going to give you the best possible vision and improve your quality of life. It’s important for your doctor to explain all the options so you can make the best choice for you. Monofocal lenses correct your vision for distance or for near. You decide which is more important to you. For instance, you may want to correct your distant vision so you can drive without glasses but wear glasses for near work. If you are an artist or a dentist, you might choose to improve your near vision and wear glasses for distance. Toric lenses reduce your astigmatism to help improve the quality of your vision. Presbyopia-correcting lenses (also called multi-focal or extended depth-of-focus lenses) correct both near and far vision. For many people, this means depending less on distance glasses and reading glasses after cataract surgery. Which lens is right for me? That depends on your needs. If you’re comfortable wearing glasses after cataract surgery, a monofocal lens may be the right choice. If you want to avoid wearing distance glasses after cataract surgery and have astigmatism, a toric lens might be appropriate. A presbyopia-correcting lens may be best if you want to avoid wearing distance and reading glasses after cataract surgery. It all comes down to what you want in terms of improving your eyesight and lifestyle. Are all IOLs covered by insurance? Monofocal lenses are fully covered. Toric lenses and presbyopia-correcting lens are not covered by insurance. You will pay an additional out-of-pocket expense — around $1000 per eye for toric and between $2000 and $2600 per eye for presbyopia-correcting lenses — if you choose one of these IOLs. How long does vision correction last? Vision correction achieved with cataract surgery is permanent. Is the surgery performed differently based on the type of lens you choose? Cataract surgery is the same no matter which IOL you select, but surgeons can use one of two approaches. In traditional cataract surgery, your eye surgeon uses a thin blade to make incisions in your eye, removes the cataract, and replaces it with the artificial lens. In laser-assisted cataract surgery, the surgeon uses a laser to make the incisions, which allows for more precision and safety. The surgeon then removes the cataract and replaces it with the artificial lens. Laser-assisted surgery can also reduce astigmatism, which is harder to achieve with traditional surgery. It’s important to note that insurance plans don’t cover laser surgery for cataracts. What should people know when considering cataract surgery? It’s important for you to spend one-on-one time with your eye surgeon before the procedure. Your surgeon should explain the surgical procedure and your lens options. Understanding your choices is the only way you can make an informed decision. To read the original article click here.

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3D Printing Your Own Personalized Contact Lenses

The AHA! Team — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 08:26:35 +0000

John Jeffay via Israel21c – Lensy envisions that within a few years, the optometrist will check your vision, press a button and hand you a perfect pair of custom contact lenses. Instant 3D-printed contact lenses are the future. You’ll go for an eye exam, the optometrist will check your vision, press a button, and within minutes you’ll have a pair of contact lenses that are a perfect fit and provide perfect vision. Leonardo da Vinci came up with the theoretical idea of contact lenses in 1508. They didn’t become a practical reality until the 1930s. Yet even now they haven’t really taken off. Three billion people globally wear glasses, but only 150 million opt for contacts. The reason: Price and comfort. Contact lenses work out to be far more expensive than eyeglasses, especially now that 90 percent of users choose disposables. And many people find they simply can’t wear them – because their eyes are the wrong shape. Eyes are a bit like feet, Edan Kenig, CEO at Israeli startup Lensy, tells ISRAEL21c. They come in different shapes and sizes. Yet off-the-shelf contact lenses are “one-size-fits-all” aside from the optical part in the center. So they more or less fit 70% of the world’s population, but for the other 30%, it’s just tough. That’s because the big players in the optical market use the same molds to mass-manufacture millions of lenses. Some inevitably end up being too loose, some too tight, depending on tiny but significant differences in eye shape and size. Kenig says his technology will solve both the price and comfort problems, and his lenses could be available to buy four years from now. Resin 3D “I would really like to wear contact lens for the whole day,” says Kenig, who is extremely short-sighted (a minus-11 prescription). “But now I’m limited to use them only for sport [he does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] for a few hours because it’s not comfortable for me.” He’s a biophysicist by training and later became an engineer and an entrepreneur, learning how to develop ideas into products. He saw the potential of an emerging technology called resin 3D-printing, a more sophisticated form of standard 3D printing. It uses UV light to “cure” or harden a resin, rather than squirting material through a nozzle to build objects layer by layer. Kenig and his small team, based in Rehovot, central Israel, have adapted a form of contact lens material and developed a technique to resin 3D-print it. They’ve got as far as printing a contact lens — and say they’re the first to have done so — but still need to perfect it before they can try it out in a human eye. Custom solutions Lensy is an early-stage startup founded in early 2022 with help from the Israel Innovation Authority. The company currently has no external funding. Big companies are also researching and developing printed lenses, says Kenig, but they’re planning what he calls “large, cumbersome, expensive printers” rather than the desktop version he’s working on. For the 70% of people with “normal” eyes, mass-produced lenses will likely remain the best option, he says. For the other 30%, tailored lenses will be a gamechanger. “The further away you are away from the average fit, the more problems you’re going to have, such as people with a high astigmatism, people with high myopia and people with peculiar eye shapes that are not round and not spherical. “The optometrist will then have the opportunity to make a custom solution so the patient will have an affordable, comfortable fit that’s tailored to their needs.” The machine will be available on a lease basis, using capsules that will cost the optometrist $50 per eye. The lenses will be reusable, although it’s possible that the technology will evolve to produce disposables. Like shoes “Contact lenses aren’t a new solution, yet they have many disadvantages that haven’t been resolved by better materials or better designs,” Kenig says. Around a fifth of wearers give up on them every year, he says. So although new users are always starting, the market is effectively stagnant. That’s partly to do with the cost – around $4 a day, he says – but largely because of the one-size-fits-all restriction. “It’s like going into a shoe store,” says Kenig, “and all the shoes are size nine [42 in Europe]. So if you’re size nine, great. If you’re size eight, you will have some problems. But if you’re seven or 11, it’ll be impossible.” Kenig says getting contact lenses today is time-consuming, cumbersome and labor-intensive, and the patient has to be really committed. Even a minor miscalculation means the optician will have to have the lenses redone. “If you have problem with your off-the-shelf contact lens, the optician will tell you to take glasses instead. They don’t have the tools to tailor your lenses.” In the future, Kenig says Lensy could make contact lenses that incorporate existing technology for kids that actually slows the progress of myopia as their eyes grow. Kenig also says lenses could one day be impregnated with slow-release drugs to avoid the need for painful eye injections, and smart contact lenses could be embedded with sensors and cameras. For more information, click here. To read the original article click here.

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Jamal Can See Again, Thanks to New Synthetic Cornea

AHA Publisher — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 08:00:41 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – Jamal Furani from Haifa wasn’t able to see his new grandchild until January 3, when he became the first patient to receive the KPro artificial cornea from CorNeat Vision in Ra’anana. The 78-year-old Arab Israeli gradually lost most of his vision over the past decades due to corneal disease. He had four donor transplants to try to restore his vision, but all failed. Dr. Irit Bahar, chief of ophthalmology at Beilinson Hospital of Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, explained that each successive surgery has less chance of success. The synthetic cornea changed all that. The day after the KPro was introduced on January 3, Bahar said she was shocked at how well Furani was able to read a vision chart and to recognize family members. “The moment we took off the bandages was an emotional and significant moment. Moments like these are the fulfillment of our calling as doctors,” she said. As for Furani, he said to the doctors, “As much as you are happy, I am even happier. It’s my treasure” to be able to see. “The innovation here stems from the ability to take something totally synthetic that has no cells or tissue and implant it in the wall of the eye so that it essentially becomes part of the body,” CorNeat cofounder Dr. Gilad Litvin, inventor of the KPro, told Channel 13 news. Only last July, the first in-human trials of the CorNeat synthetic cornea were approved at Beilinson, as ISRAEL21c reported. Almog Aley-Raz, CorNeat Vision’s cofounder, CEO & VP R&D, said: “The CorNeat KPro’s first-in-human implantation is just the first step in a multinational clinical trial, geared toward attaining CE Mark, FDA clearance and China NMPA approval. “A total of 10 patients are approved for the trial at Rabin Medical Center in Israel with two additional sites planned to open this January in Canada and six others at different stages in the approval process in France, the US, and the Netherlands. “Our first trial includes blind patients who are not suitable candidates for — or have failed one or more — corneal transplantations. Given the exceptional visual performance of our device, the expected healing time and retention, and the fact that it cannot carry disease, we plan to initiate a second study later this year with broader indications to approve our artificial cornea as a first line treatment, displacing the use of donor tissue used in full thickness corneal transplantations.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Electrical Stimulation Could Restore Vision in Blind People

AHA Publisher — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 07:00:40 +0000

University of Zurich via News-Medical Net – In a project under Horizon 2020, researchers from seven European organizations will examine how the vision of visually impaired people can be restored using electrical stimulation of the brain. The project is being coordinated by the University of Zurich and supported by the European Union with funding of 4 million euros. If a project receives funding from the European Union, it must involve excellent science in innovative and promising interdisciplinary research fields that provide new and relevant ideas for industry and society. The international Neural Active Visual Prosthetics for Restoring Function project meets all these criteria and has been awarded an EU research grant totaling 4 million euros over four years. The project will kick off on 1 September 2020 and is being coordinated by Prof. Shih-Chii Liu at the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich. Working in interdisciplinary teams from seven European universities and institutions with complementary expertise in computational, systems and clinical neuroscience, materials engineering, microsystems design, and deep learning, the project will develop technology to restore the vision of blind people through electrical stimulation of the brain. Close Interdisciplinary Cooperation The aim of the project is to develop a neuroprosthesis with thousands of electrodes driven by adaptive machine learning algorithms for a new brain-computer interfacing technology. “We want to create a novel neuroprosthesis system that is lightweight, robust and portable, and which will remain effective for decades,” explains Shih-Chii Liu. Current systems only stimulate a small set of neurons in the brain, and interfaces have longevity of only a few months. Liu is convinced that the project will succeed in its goals: “All the partners have long-time experience in their respective fields, so the required background knowledge is already in place. The breakthroughs will come with the planned larger-scale efforts and partner interactions in this project.” The challenge will be coordinating the expected breakthroughs across multiple disciplines. Establishing Innovation These breakthroughs include innovative approaches for stimulation with high-electrode-count interfacing with the visual cortex. For this, thin flexible probes are needed that cause minimal tissue damage as well as new electrode coatings and novel microchip methods. The researchers will also channel the stimulation currents to many thousands of electrodes and monitor neuronal activity in higher cortical areas. Breakthroughs are also expected when it comes to artificial neural networks trained by deep learning, which will only extract the most relevant visual information from a camera input to enable blind individuals to recognize objects and facial expressions and navigate through unfamiliar environments. These networks will transform the camera footage into stimulation patterns that drive the neurons in a way that the blind person can interpret. This is the only way that the signals can be processed and passed on. At the same time, eye tracking will be used to improve perception in a closed-loop approach. The Algorithm Translates Stimulation Patterns In addition to coordinating the project, the University of Zurich is also contributing to its technological expertise. The neuroinformatics team of Shih-Chii Liu and Tobi Delbruck will be working with consortium partners to develop power-efficient neuromorphic deep learning hardware and algorithms. The network implemented on the neuromorphic hardware will translate camera input into stimulation patterns to drive the stimulation electrodes. This research project is important because it lays ground-breaking work for constructing a new brain neuroprosthesis and brings added benefits to other neuroprosthesis research.” Shih-Chii Liu, Professor, Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich The involved researchers hope that the project will raise Europe’s still relatively low profile in this research field. To read the original article click here.

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