Alcon
AcrySof ReSTOR Lens Implants:
Harvard Eye Associates — 30 Years
of Lens Implant Experience!
The AcrySof ReSTOR lens.
Meeting the Challenge of Presbyopia
The ability to focus at various distances is called "accommodation"
and is the normal condition of a youthful eye’s natural lens.
However, as we age, this lens becomes more rigid and our ability
to accommodate diminishes, usually starting around the age
of forty. This reduced ability to accommodate is called "presbyopia".
Presbyopia is the reason that reading glasses or bifocals are
required as we age.
Aging also causes the eye's natural lens to become more opaque, which
scatters light and creates cloudy vision. The opaque lens is
called a "cataract". More than half of Americans 65 and older have cataracts.
Traditionally, when a cataract develops, the human lens is
replaced with an artificial lens inside the eye. Standard lens implants
allows optimum vision without glasses for one distance only, typically for
seeing far away (distance vision). Glasses are still usually needed for close-up
vision.
Monovision, often achieved through blended vision (where one eye is
focused for distance and the other eye for intermediate near)
is sometimes a good compromise for average daily activities, but still requires
prescription glasses for fine visual tasks that require better depth perception.
Breakthrough Technology
The AcrySof ReSTOR IOL represents breakthrough technology because it
treats the refractive problem of presbyopia. The ReSTOR lens uses
a new strategy for collecting and distributing light that doesn't rely
on the ciliary muscle, the muscle that controls the flexing of the inside
lens, which looses its effectiveness with age.
Other accommodative-type intraocular lenses produce vision at various
ranges by depending on the action of the eye's muscles to produce
accommodation. However, the ReSTOR lens provides different ranges of vision
based on a lens configuration that enables specific distribution of light.
Highest Quality Results
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With the ReSTOR lens implant you can see both near and far, with no loss of depth perception.
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Previous attempts using various multifocal lenses often resulted in
haloes and significantly reduced contrast sensitivity in low light conditions.
These issues have been significantly improved with the ReSTOR lens.
As well, unlike the blended vision monofocal implant option; there is
no loss of depth perception. Reading ability, even for fine print, is
typically markedly improved with the ReSTOR.
Medicare Approved!
Medicare has announced revisions to some of its payment guidelines,
allowing patients covered for cataract surgery to choose the ReSTOR
lens at an added fee. Previous Medicare payment rules did not allow
patients to choose this lens, which is significant since the lens was
specifically designed for this age group.
The ReSTOR lens and the care associated with the surgery to implant
it treats the non-covered refractive diagnosis of presbyopia. For the
first time, Medicare is now allowing patients to choose this elective
refractive service. Patients with cataracts will still have their basic
surgery covered by Medicare and/or insurance (minus any applicable co-pays
or deductibles), plus they may elect to pay out of pocket for the upgrade
of the ReSTOR lens and presbyopia treatment.
Refractive lens exchange, surgery patients without cataract who wish
to be less dependent on glasses, would be responsible for the whole
fee as usual.
Alcon's AcrySof ReSTOR Lens Is FDA-Approved
This new artificial lens, which often can restore sight at near and
distant ranges following cataract surgery, has received United
States Food and Drug Administration approval. The clinical studies supporting
its approval showed that 80 percent of patients who received
the AcrySof ReSTOR lens did not use glasses for any activities after
cataract surgery. Only
8% of standard monofocal IOL patients were free from glasses
in the FDA study, indicating that patients who choose the ReSTOR lens
have significantly better odds at achieving glasses independence.
If you are interested in seeing your best without glasses please contact
Harvard Eye so that we can evaluate the appropriateness
of this technology for you. Together, we can further discuss
the benefits, risks and costs.
How It Works, next page —>
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