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Phakic Intraocular Lenses

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Intraocular lenses have been used for decades with great success to optimize focusing ability in people undergoing cataract surgery.

Recently research has begun to assess whether an intraocular lens can safely and effectively correct focusing problems (e.g. nearsightedness) in people who are "phakic" - that is, who have not undergone cataract surgery and still have their eye's natural internal lens.

Implanting an intraocular lens is a very familiar and highly successful procedure in ophthalmology.  However, unlike all other refractive or vision correction surgeries, it requires making an incision inside the eye rather than performing the corrective surgery on the surface of the eye.  This potentially exposes the other internal structures of the eye to damage and creates a small possibility of an internal eye infection, a much more serious problem than an external eye infection.

Phakic IOL's are undergoing early testing at present, but if the potential complications of surgery can be avoided, the excellent optical quality of intraocular lenses could make them a very popular choice for vision correction at some point in the future.

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