Implantable contact lens safe

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An implantable contact lens that corrects vision in nearsighted patients is safe and does not have some of the side effects of laser surgery, a company that manufactures the devices said on Wednesday.

STAAR Surgical Co. said its lens corrected the vision of 95 percent of patients to 20/40 or better, and 60 percent had 20/20 vision. 

Writing in the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s clinical journal Ophthalmology, the researchers said no patients reported increased problems such as glare halos, double vision, night vision or difficulty driving at night—all potential side-effects of Lasik surgery.

They said 97 percent of the patients said they would choose to have the lens implanted again.

The STAAR lens and a rival product by Advanced Medical Optics are both awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

Some studies presented to the FDA show implantable lenses can cause serious side effects, including corneal damage, cataracts and retinal detachment.

For this study, the STAAR myopic lens was implanted in 526 eyes of nearly 294 patients whose myopia, or nearsightedness, ranged from a moderate minus 3.0 diopters to severe myopia of minus 20.0 diopters.

“These data suggest that the (implantable contact lens) should be given serious consideration for use in eyes with minus 7 diopters of myopia or more,” the researchers wrote.

In a commentary on the study, Dr. Peter Kastl of Tulane University in New Orleans, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said: “While LASIK is the best surgical option for many patients, there can be more complications for patients with a higher range of myopia. Implantable contact lenses may be a good option for those patients.”

About 30 percent of Americans have myopia, also known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness.

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