Accommodating lenses not yet viable alternative for presbyopia

NUREMBERG, Germany — Accommodative lenses have not yet reached the point of development that multifocals have for treating presbyopia, said one surgeon here.

Although there are promising lenses in development and other experimental ideas are in their infancy, Ulrich Mester, MD, said they do not yet offer a viable alternative.

“The Synchrony (Visiogen) lens has more of a chance of success,” he told attendees at the German Ophthalmic Surgeons meeting.

According to Dr. Mester, the Synchrony dual optic lens is being studied in three different centers to validate the theories behind the lens design.

“A 1 mm shift in this lens would produce 2.2 D of accommodation shift, where one lens would only produce 1.2 D of accommodation shift,” he said. “It’s quite an intelligent design.”

Other accommodative designs have come and gone, and highly experimental concepts are still in the developmental stage.

For now, Dr. Mester said, multifocals are a “good alternative.”