Intracorneal inlay shows improved uncorrected near visual acuity, high safety profile at 4 years

J Cataract Refract Surg. 2011;37(7):1275-1281.

An intracorneal inlay safely corrected presbyopia in patients for up to 4 years, a study found.

"Other modalities for phakic eyes, such as presbyopic LASIK, monovision LASIK, and conductive keratoplasty, have significant downsides, are not reversible, and may improve near vision at the expense of distance vision," the authors said. "We believe that development of a pocket procedure and more precise methods identifying the visual axis will further improve the results with this modality of presbyopia correction."

The prospective study included 39 patients; mean patient age was 51.9 years. Twenty-seven patients had undergone previous hyperopic LASIK, and 12 patients had no previous refractive surgery.

Primary inclusion criteria were post-LASIK or emmetropic presbyopia with Snellen uncorrected near visual acuity of 20/40 or worse, correctable to 20/25 or better at distance. Patients with latent hyperopia, anterior or posterior segment disease or degeneration, and immunosuppressive disorders were excluded.

Mean follow-up after implantation of the Kamra intracorneal inlay (AcuFocus) was 52.2 months; 22 patients were evaluated at 4-year follow-up.

Four-year results showed that mean uncorrected near visual acuity was 20/20 (J1). Uncorrected distance acuity was 20/40 or better in all 22 patients. Reading vision was J3 or better in 96% of patients.

Patients gained a mean 3.8 lines of uncorrected near visual acuity (range: 2 to 6.6 lines), with no appreciable loss in distance vision.

Results showed no implant-related complications, the authors said.