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Flexible IOL concept achieves large dioptric change in lab model
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An accommodating IOL model achieved a large change of dioptric power in a laboratory animal model, according to a surgeon involved in development of the IOL.
Jorgé Alió, MD, and colleagues at Miguel Hernandez University in Alicante, Spain, developed the IOL prototype, which changes power with ciliary body action.
The IOL prototype uses a soft optic material with a refractive index of 1.41, which is manipulated between a sulcus-fixated rigid plane and a capsular diaphragm operated by the ciliary muscles, according to Dr. Alió. After lab testing, a prototype was built and implanted in monkey eyes to measure its physiological parameters.
The lab model produced more than 50 D of accommodation in the monkey model, Dr. Alió said.
Drugs were used to induce ciliary relaxation and contraction in the monkey eye, and ultrasound biomicroscopy demonstrated a change in lens curvature from 9 D to 43 D between the two muscle states.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first time that something like this has been achieved,” Dr. Alió told Ocular Surgery News.