New implantable collamer lens (ICL) was inserted for the first time at UT Southwestern Medical Center on February 27 by Dr. Wayne Bowman on a patient's eyes to fix nearsightedness.

The ICL can replace or reduce the need for glasses by permanently placing the specially fitted artificial lens in front of the eye's natural lens, rather than replacing the natural lens as other implanted lens do, said Dr. Bowman, professor of ophthalmology.

The lens, made of a special collamer material, corrects moderate to severe nearsightedness, known as myopia, by bending light rays to improve blurry distance vision without the need for glasses or contacts.

It's like a contact lens inside the eyes that is currently approved only for nearsightedness but may eventually be available for farsightedness and astigmatism.

Ideal candidates for lens transplant are patients typically under 40 years of age who don't have presbyopia (age-associated progressive loss of the focusing power of the lens) yet, making reading glasses a necessity but whose corrections are outside the parameters for routine laser procedures.

The procedure, according to Dr Bowman takes about 10 to 15 minutes only. The Visian implantable lens is made by STAAR Surgical Co. in Monrovia, Calif.

Source: [UT SouthWestern Medical Center]