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.

vanmax

I was interested in the kooman's comments after picking up the thread in a google search. I have joined this forum and find these things very complicated . . however, the kooman, if you see this, I wanted to know what your partner had done with her second eye. I have had one done and don't feel like having the second one done, because of the long erm risks. I am kind of happy with the one, but as it hasnot settled down yet, I am not even thiking about the second. 10 days on and it does not feel right. I thought I was the only person to have said "no, just one is fine!!"

thekooman

vanmax wrote: »

I was interested in the kooman's comments after picking up the thread in a google search. I have joined this forum and find these things very complicated . . however, the kooman, if you see this, I wanted to know what your partner had done with her second eye. I have had one done and don't feel like having the second one done, because of the long erm risks. I am kind of happy with the one, but as it hasnot settled down yet, I am not even thiking about the second. 10 days on and it does not feel right. I thought I was the only person to have said "no, just one is fine!!"

At work vanmax but will write over the weekend in more detail. the wife got her second eye done 2 months ago and her sight is near perfect. still some halos but the lazy eye is improving immensely also....
it has been nearly 2 years since she got the 1st one done...

vanmax

i never noticed this before (and i realize there is a medical condition called lazy eye) but I think my "New" eye is being really lazy since the operation. i am supposed to have a bit of near vision but it will not focus and defers to the dominant right one, I am sure more than it ever did. maybe 2 years will have it better. i can see t lines of light at the bottom and it seems cloudy still. just doesn't feel right yet and tehre were peole having their 2nd ey done a week later!!! argh!

ryanglynn86

Some really helpful info on here

I an considereing Phakic IOL's for one eye which is at -10. I have astigmatism and apparently the connections never developed so my brain doesnt use this eye properly, I'm sure you know the deal.
This means glasses or lenses never worked for me as they all gave me blurred double vision.
So what is the difference between a lens in my eye (IOL) or the lens I put on my eye (my contact lens)?
I am just skeptical as to how effective the procedure is. Why would IOL's not be just as ineffective as contact lenses?

does anyone have any info?
Hope I'm wrong though
cheers

vanmax

so I still have only one eye iol inplant. left eye still not better. sore, lid swollen and some rays of light across the eye, sensative and just doesn't feel well yet. 4 months on. this is unusual I am told. . However, my distance vision is fantastic and the stigmatism is gone. the cuts the surgeon made cured the astigmatism. they couldn't get a lens that cured the astig. in time so did it with cuts! so for you, this might be the better way. don't know about your other problem. maybe the surgeon will.

thekooman

vanmax wrote: »

so I still have only one eye iol inplant. left eye still not better. sore, lid swollen and some rays of light across the eye, sensative and just doesn't feel well yet. 4 months on. this is unusual I am told. . However, my distance vision is fantastic and the stigmatism is gone. the cuts the surgeon made cured the astigmatism. they couldn't get a lens that cured the astig. in time so did it with cuts! so for you, this might be the better way. don't know about your other problem. maybe the surgeon will.

that seems a long time to be swollen. my wifes eye was swollen for a few weeks after but she had an infection in the folicles but this has cleared up. her sight is perfect now... she is very happy with it.
ryanglynn86; the astigmatism is cleared by how the surgeon tightens the stitches. my wifes astigmatism cleared after this was done with the first eye. this "lazy" eye has now improved big time. the artisan lens is placed inside the outside layer of the eye and stitched to the eye with special clips on it so as that it doesn't move.

squidgy51

Several years ago I had that “cutting” of the eye operation mentioned in the earlier post, to improve my stigmatism (I’m +6) I was told gud chance of working and that there was no side effects except the pain and no downside! It turns out it made gettin contact lens way harder/impossible and according to prof o Keefe only had a 50/50 chance of working but would never have got me to a point where I wouldn’t need glasses which was the promise at the time if it worked(which it didn’t)
Now it turns out as I get older my prescription is changing slightly and that combined with the scarring has brought me to a point where it’s hard to read(due to blurring/double vision).
Like a lot of other people I would advise getting 2nd opinions and lots of research! Which I thought I had done and went to a respectable consultant in a leading hospital! You can not be too careful and having an operation on even one eye can effect the combined sight from both unless ur goin to wear a patch over the bad one for the rest of ur life!

thekooman

nearly 10 years on from the initial artisan lens implant and both eyes are still great. she did have a lens detach at one point but surgery the next day (great service from the consultant) and it was fixed up. obviously it wasn't ideal in terms of having to drop everything and getting it done. this was maybe 7 years ago.

she has a small deterioration in the cell count of one eye but this is monitored at each 6 months checkup.

squidgy51

thekooman wrote: »

nearly 10 years on from the initial artisan lens implant and both eyes are still great. she did have a lens detach at one point but surgery the next day (great service from the consultant) and it was fixed up. obviously it wasn't ideal in terms of having to drop everything and getting it done. this was maybe 7 years ago.

she has a small deterioration in the cell count of one eye but this is monitored at each 6 months checkup.

Hi I was trying to find out, what happens to someone if the cell count drops off dramaticall?

fritzelly

I've never heard of this and been thinking about laser surgery for years but just cannot seem to pluck up the courage to do it.

This implant surgery seems like it carries quite a lot of risks?
@thekooman - are the checkups free or how much do they cost?

I'm -6/-6.5 with astigmatism and was never bothered about getting 20/20 vision but close enough I would be happy with. But reading here even the laser surgery is very dependent on the eye with my prescription (never even knew that0
Damn, this was something I planned on doing this year.

thekooman

fritzelly wrote: »

This implant surgery seems like it carries quite a lot of risks?
@thekooman - are the checkups free or how much do they cost?.

every surgery has a risk.
checkups were free first few years but now it's 100 or 150 euro...I'm not sure.my wife goes every 6 months but a year would do.

cell count; if it goes too low it will introduce a cataract afaik... might need to clarify this. cells can be regenerated and inserted into the eye.last resort idea though.

fritzelly

Can I ask, since this thread is quite old at this time, has the procedure/operation improved at all or is it basically the same thing

Starting to read up on this now...

the_syco

fritzelly wrote: »

I'm -6/-6.5 with astigmatism and was never bothered about getting 20/20 vision but close enough I would be happy with.

Look into wavefront lasik. It allows people with high astigmatism get their eyes lasered.