Phakic lens implants instead of laser eye surgery - anyone get it done?

thekooman

hi,
my better half has pretty bad sight and would love to get laser eye surgery but she has an astigmatism in one eye with +6 in both eyes. so she is unsuitable for lasik surgery but the wellington clinic think that she would be ok for the phakic lens implant which is basically the insertion of a permanent contact on the lens of the eye.
going by the documentation/brochures, the procedure is reversible so that is good in itself. anyways i was wondering if any boardsters had this done and how did they fare out?

thekooman

bump!

DrIndy

I have heard of it and know someone who had them done. however, this is very specialist ophthalmology and beyond my field of study unfortunately....

wheelbarrow

bump.

thekooman

since i seen the bump, i said "why don't i let you know how she got on!"
the wellington clinic do a artisan lens implant. http://www.ophtec.com/consumer/en/artisan-artiflex/the-lenses
This company provides the lens. there is a video of the procedure on the site; can't find it at the mo!

my partner got it done last Wednesday. her "bad eye"(astigmatism and +6) was operated on. she got a general anaestetic(spelling?) and the whole procedure was about 3 hours. she slept for 14 hours after and had a patch on over night. on Thursday, the patch was taken off and immediately her sight was down to +0.5, a huge improvement.
her "bad eye" is now her good eye! she had a checkup today and her astigmatism is totally gone and her sight is now +0.25 in the eye.

the one thing that she is worrying about is a catarrach forming if the edocenial(spelling?) cell count in her eye falls dramatically. this will only happen if the consultant "touched" the natural lens during surgery.

she is delighted with it so far.... now to get her to do the other eye.:rolleyes:

Chunky Monkey

I think people are so brave to get those things done to their eyes My eyesight is bad but I'm a big coward who's going to stick with glasses forever Glad to hear it went well for her kooman

littlebug

Can we ask how much?

thekooman

2500 per eye, which includes the 950 for the Beacon Hospital day patient charge. VHI don't cover it as its cosmetic but will cover it if you were referred by a doctor to get it done or something to that effect. they will cover 15% in that case.

also meant to say; i can't see the lens in her eye. the only way you would be able to see it is if you shone a light into the eye. if 20/20 vision hasn't been achieved, the patient can have it "tweaked" by using laser. its totally reversible but the Wellington have never taken out one in the 4 years that they have been doing it.

scuby

thekooman wrote: »

2500 per eye, which includes the 950 for the Beacon Hospital day patient charge. VHI don't cover it as its cosmetic but will cover it if you were referred by a doctor to get it done or something to that effect. they will cover 15% in that case.

vhi do not cover 15%, you get a discount from the eye clinic, for being a member of the health insurance comp.

wheelbarrow

Did you visit many other clinics..thinking of getting this done.

thekooman

the Mater also does a lens implant but my partner had dealt with the Wellington before when she was first looking to get laser done.

have had no complaints with the Wellington; very professional and have been doing the lens implant now for 4 years.
The consultant(won't mention names) said that the first person to get it done had a prescription of -26 in both eyes. they are now at -2 and have been for the last 4 years!
The Wellington also let us to talk to someone who had it done and my partner knew a friend of a friend so chatted to her. There is loads of info on the web but my partner found this: http://www.osnsupersite.com/view.asp?rID=23453
some interesting facts but i would think that more people have it done than this.

wheelbarrow

..another bump:-)

thekooman

since i seen the bump....

my wife (did the deed since i last posted! :-) ) had it done in January and had her 9 month checkup in Oct... everything is perfect. the lazy eye (which it was done on) is now improving immensely and her brain is using it more and more. she is also a lot more confident and just wears the one contact lenses in her other eye.... she doesn't want to get the other eye done in case anything ever happened! :rolleyes: she has a blanks lens in her glasses when ever she wants to wear them. all in all, a success.

Lisie247

Im hoping to get mine done in the Mater- they told me i wasn't suitable for laser so suggested this.the only downside is that it takes 6-8 weeks to make the lens so I prob wont get it done until the end of November. Also they do one eye then 3 weeks later do the 2nd eye so ill have to wear glasses with one lens popped out for 3 weeks- but suppose its only a short amount of time when ya think about it long term!
The scary thing is optical express told me i could get the laser done no prob but the mater told me my cornea is way too thin for laser. So ppl beware make sure u get a few opinions before you go ahead!

thekooman

Lisie247 wrote: »

Im hoping to get mine done in the Mater- they told me i wasn't suitable for laser so suggested this.the only downside is that it takes 6-8 weeks to make the lens so I prob wont get it done until the end of November. Also they do one eye then 3 weeks later do the 2nd eye so ill have to wear glasses with one lens popped out for 3 weeks- but suppose its only a short amount of time when ya think about it long term!
The scary thing is optical express told me i could get the laser done no prob but the mater told me my cornea is way too thin for laser. So ppl beware make sure u get a few opinions before you go ahead!

best of luck with it Lisie247; its the best thing you'll ever do. let us know how it goes for you.

Lisie247

Have my appointment for phakic lens implants- tues 10th November. am really nervous as ill be going under general anesthetic (forgive my spelling!) but i really hate wearing glasses and contacts so hopefully it will be worth it-total cost will be €5600. I have to sign a disclaimer which is basically signing your life away- e.g. the Mater hosp is not liable if it results in blindness or even death(yes really) due to the surgery. I'll be sure to let u know how i get on!

thekooman

Lisie247 wrote: »

Have my appointment for phakic lens implants- tues 10th November. am really nervous as ill be going under general anesthetic (forgive my spelling!) but i really hate wearing glasses and contacts so hopefully it will be worth it-total cost will be €5600. I have to sign a disclaimer which is basically signing your life away- e.g. the Mater hosp is not liable if it results in blindness or even death(yes really) due to the surgery. I'll be sure to let u know how i get on!

again Lisie247 best of luck. just on the cost, keep all your receipts and details as you can claim this back on your tax... my wife got back about 900 euro back.
its the best thing you'll ever do.

Lisie247

thekooman wrote: »

again Lisie247 best of luck. just on the cost, keep all your receipts and details as you can claim this back on your tax... my wife got back about 900 euro back.
its the best thing you'll ever do.

Great thanks- it will be a nice little bonus getting that money back!

xavi_r

Lisie247 wrote: »

Im hoping to get mine done in the Mater- they told me i wasn't suitable for laser so suggested this.the only downside is that it takes 6-8 weeks to make the lens so I prob wont get it done until the end of November. Also they do one eye then 3 weeks later do the 2nd eye so ill have to wear glasses with one lens popped out for 3 weeks- but suppose its only a short amount of time when ya think about it long term!
The scary thing is optical express told me i could get the laser done no prob but the mater told me my cornea is way too thin for laser. So ppl beware make sure u get a few opinions before you go ahead!

that's unbelievable, the same happened to me. I went to Optical Express and they said I was suited for laser (-7.5, -9). After that of course I checked with other clinics, in Dundrum they said I couldn't get laser so they recommended me Mater private. Now I'm doing loads of researchs on the web, the risks scares the **** out of me, I found some statistics about the risks with IOL, but about Artiflex I only could find statistics in their website, http://www.ophtec.com/ so I'm looking for other sources, I want to know accurated statistics from the first Artisan implant at the end of the 60's until the latest Artiflex. Lisie247, please let me know how is going in your case, I might do it next spring. In gneral, the risks of IOL are quite scary , even if the percentage is very low..
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/ImplantsandProsthetics/PhakicIntraocularLenses/ucm059239.htm

Ann22

Op Lasik can be done with hyperopia(far sight) can't it? Why could lasik not be done in this case?

chanste

I just gotta ask.... what is the bump thing all about?

thekooman

chanste wrote: »

I just gotta ask.... what is the bump thing all about?

you've just "bumped" this message up to the top of the Health Sciences section by asking that question!
thats what a bump is, it brings a question/topic back to the top of the forum so as that people will see it.

Lisie247

Ann22 wrote: »

Op Lasik can be done with hyperopia(far sight) can't it? Why could lasik not be done in this case?

If your cornea is too thin and your perscription is quite high, lasik can't be done. Some like me just have thin corneas-apparently its not dangerously thin but beacuse laser removes part of your cornea..i wouldn't be left with enough.

Lisie247

xavi_r wrote: »

that's unbelievable, the same happened to me. I went to Optical Express and they said I was suited for laser (-7.5, -9). After that of course I checked with other clinics, in Dundrum they said I couldn't get laser so they recommended me Mater private. Now I'm doing loads of researchs on the web, the risks scares the **** out of me, I found some statistics about the risks with IOL, but about Artiflex I only could find statistics in their website, http://www.ophtec.com/ so I'm looking for other sources, I want to know accurated statistics from the first Artisan implant at the end of the 60's until the latest Artiflex. Lisie247, please let me know how is going in your case, I might do it next spring. In gneral, the risks of IOL are quite scary , even if the percentage is very low..
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/ImplantsandProsthetics/PhakicIntraocularLenses/ucm059239.htm

Im not going to lie...there are risks...i was clearly told MANY times in the hosp that worst case senario (although it has never happened to the 1000 people they performed the implants on)- I could go blind. I suppose it is good that they did not 'sugar coat' this fact and i had to sign a disclaimer. I took a gamble because i was so desperate to get out of my glasses- lucky for me it paid off.....

Shazamm

hi
i'd just like to ask thekooman if your wife found any other suitable options? I too have a lazy eye and am researching any treatment available to me. also how bad was her vision in her eye compared to how it is now?
thx

thekooman

Shazamm wrote: »

hi
i'd just like to ask thekooman if your wife found any other suitable options? I too have a lazy eye and am researching any treatment available to me. also how bad was her vision in her eye compared to how it is now?
thx

hi Shazamm,
no, she hasn't gone ahead with the other eye. she had a prescription of +6.5 in the eye that was done and its now +0.5 but improving. as it is a lazy eye, she wears a patch on the other occasionally so as to help it improve. it is to get the brain to use it properly now since it has been fixed.
i hope this helps

Shazamm

if i understand correctly, then that is a huge change. So she was short sighted in both eyes before, but one also was lazy, yes? this is called Anisometropic Amblyopia, i think, which is what i have.
Before the procedure did she wear contacts or do anything special for the lazy eye to compensate?
thanks

thekooman

Shazamm wrote: »

if i understand correctly, then that is a huge change. So she was short sighted in both eyes before, but one also was lazy, yes? this is called Anisometropic Amblyopia, i think, which is what i have. Before the procedure did she wear contacts or do anything special for the lazy eye to compensate?
thanks

She was short sighted in both and lazy in the eye that she got done. Before the operation she wore contacts in both eyes but found it hard to tolerate the contact in the lazy eye.it was the main reason why she got the operation done

Shazamm

thx so much for your answers, i am in the exact same scenario.
could i also ask if the contact she wore in the lazy eye helped vision in that eye as much as the new lens has or has the lens surpassed it?
and also i'm wondering how she went about getting contacts for a lazy eye?
thanks again

dragona

I think there is a bit of confusion here - with the optical prescription, a + denotes Hyperopia (long sightedness) and a -(minus) denotes Myopia (short sightedness). So you cannot have a prescription of +3.5 and be shortsighted!

thekooman

dragona wrote: »

I think there is a bit of confusion here - with the optical prescription, a + denotes Hyperopia (long sightedness) and a -(minus) denotes Myopia (short sightedness). So you cannot have a prescription of +3.5 and be shortsighted!

ooppsss, sorry for confusing people... its my wife that has the problems... im the lucky one with the good sight.
over on the thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64006850#post64006850 a poster had an artisan lens implant last week.