Cataract procedure alleviates need for glasses
Published: August 13, 2005
Dave Wallace found himself in quite a quandary. The 76-year-old River Bend resident suffered from cataracts and disliked wearing glasses. Yet as an avid cyclist, he needed to see the road.
“My vision was going down and I was concerned about keeping my driver’s license,” he said. “But I hate glasses. I’ve hated them all my life.”
Thanks to a new procedure, Wallace didn’t have to choose between restoring his vision and keeping glasses away from his face.
The procedure entails the insertion of a presbyopia-correcting intra-ocular lens. The multifocal lens, sold by Alcon as Acrysof ResTOR IOL, corrects vision both up close and at a distance. About 80 percent of patients who undergo the procedure no longer require glasses.
“The demand (for the procedure) has increased since Medicare recognized it in May,” said Rozanne McCotter of Coastal Eye Clinic in New Bern. “Now, it’s very widely performed.”
The lens was first introduced in Europe in 2003. Clinical trials in the United States led the Food and Drug Administration to approve the lens in March. According to McCotter, two years of testing has rendered the procedure relatively free of drawbacks.
In addition to its use in cataract surgery, the lens presents an alternative to other vision correctives.
“It’s very comparable in cost to LASIK surgery,” McCotter said of the laser-eye surgery to correct poor vision. “LASIK patients are also still reliant on reading glasses.”
Like LASIK surgery, the IOL insertion costs several thousand dollars. For cataract patients, part of that cost is covered by Medicare.
Dr. Kenneth Chance of Coastal Eye Clinic said the procedure is likely to grow in popularity for people age 50 and older. He has performed the procedure on three different patients.
“When I first heard about it, it seemed almost too good to be true,” he said.
Wallace, who was the first of his patients to receive the lens, shared his enthusiasm.
“I found out about it on the Web and was very eager to try it,” he said
The results so far have been positive - Wallace described life after the procedure as “a bright new world.”
The lens, however, did not correct Wallace’s occasional double vision, a pre-existing condition that might lead him toward prism-correcting glasses after all.
The cost of the procedure varies according to the type of lens, but it is covered partially under Medicare for cataract patients.
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