All you should know about Phakic lens or IOL

Phakic lens is a type of Implantable lens. They are also called Intraocular lenses (IOL). You may ask that what are these type of lenses used for? The answer is that the phakic lens is for patients who had a LASIK eye surgery or PRK and need to solve their medium to high nearsightedness (so called myopia). Sometimes the result of using intraocular lenses is even better than an eye refractive surgery.

In a situation like this you would need a surgery to implant this clear lens between the cornea and the colored part of your eye, iris, or even in the back of your iris.

How do the phakic lenses function?

The functionality of phakic lenses (IOL) in solving the myopia problem is like the contact lenses, but phakic lenses differ from contact lenses in their placement. While the contact lenses are placed on your eye’s surface, the phakic lenses will be placed inside your eye. Moreover, the phakic intraocular lenses would give you a perpetual improvement of nearsightedness as long as the lens is not removed.

One of the advantages that phakic IOL have over the contact lenses is that you will not feel it inside your eyes. In addition, they need no maintenance.

Is phakic IOL implanation a good choice for you?

We know that LASIK is one of the common eye correction surgeries which also has a very good result. But the group of people whose farsightedness, nearsightedness or astigmatism is very much, LASIK surgery is not a good choice for them. Even those who have a very thin cornea, dry eye or keratoconus are included in this group. So, these people should have a phakic intraocular lens implantation for a better outcome. As we mentioned, not everyone is a good candidate for phakic IOL, neither for LASIK. So your doctor will help you to understand which one is right for you.

What are the risks and complications?

• In some cases, inflammation, infection and bleeding may occur due to an iris injury. It is followed by redness or reduced vision and also pain.
• Some patients may get cataract
• After the phakic intraocular lens implantation some patients lose their vision.
• If the lens moves from its right place or if it does not have the right size you will need another surgery to change the position or remove and replace the lens
• Halos, weak vision in low light and glare
• In some cases the patient feels a high pressure inside his eye. If this continues for too long, you will lose your vision. The solution is medicines or surgery.
• The retina tissue may get detached
• Since defining that which lens you would need is difficult, you may need another treatment after the surgery. You may not achieve 20/20 Visual acuity and may need contact lenses or glasses for some functions. There are some cases that the patient needs another surgery to replace the lens.
• Your cornea may lose its clearance and become cloudy