Procedures such as LASIK and PRK reshape the cornea by removing microscopic amounts of tissue. In order for these procedures to be effective, the cornea must maintain a certain thickness after reshaping. As it turns out, the higher your prescription, the more your cornea must be thinned. Patients who are very nearsighted, or who have corneas that are relatively thin, may not have enough remaining thickness after LASIK or PRK, and are therefore not candidates for laser vision correction. Until recently, these individuals had no choice but to continue wearing their contact lenses or glasses, suffering from eye irritation or vision distortion. Now, there is an alternative that can not only free you from glasses and contacts, but that can provide you with vision that may be even better than you had with them on!
Phakic intraocular lenses (P-IOLs) are thin, prescription implants that work like contact lenses to correct your distance vision. These lenses sit inside the eye, and provide excellent focusing power for patients with prescriptions as high as -20D. Because P-IOLs correct your prescription from inside the eye, the cornea does not need to be reshaped, which tends to provide you with sharper vision. In addition, any remaining prescription after the procedure is so small that the cornea is usually thick enough should any minor fine tuning with laser be necessary. P-IOLs are designed to remain permanently in place, but they can be readily removed to meet any future changes in your visual needs.
There are several phakic implants in use. The two FDA-approved implants are the Artisan/Verisyse and Visian ICL. At our sister company, SightTrust, Dr. Andrew Shatz has been able to provide individuals with hyperopic (farsighted) – and astigmatism-correcting Artisan P-IOLs under the FDA’s compassionate use exemption. If you or someone you know is not a candidate for LASIK or PRK, SightTrust may be able to offer an excellent treatment alternative!
