|
Presbyopia
Nearly 90% of adults at the age of 45 need to wear glasses or contact lenses. Most of these 100 million people use glasses simply to allow them to read or perform close-up tasks. This is a result of normal aging process of the eye called Presbyopia. Presbyopia causes the near point (the closest point from your eyes at which you can see objects distinctly) to recede as we grow older. As we age, we need to hold things further away in order to see them clearly.
At 10 years of age, we could hold small objects or printed reading material 2 inches from our eyes and be able to see it. At 30 years of age, we now have to hold the same small objects or print 6 inches away in order to see it clearly. By the time 40-45 years of age arrives, we can no longer read comfortably at 12-16 inches. Most people at this stage begin using glasses for visual tasks such as reading, sewing, or hobbies requiring close vision.
For farsighted people (those who can see better at distance than at near without glasses) this loss of focus or accommodation becomes evident at a younger age. Nearsighted people (those who can see better at near than at distance without glasses) can wait longer before they need reading glasses. If there is enough nearsightedness (myopia), you may never need reading glasses because you can simply take off your glasses to read. In this situation, however, you always have to wear glasses to see at a distance (e.g. driving).
Even people who grew up wearing glasses, by the time they reach the age of 45 will not only need one set of lenses for seeing at a distance but also one set of lenses for near tasks and reading. This can be accomplished with two sets of eyeglasses; one for distance vision and one for near vision. This bothered Benjamin Franklin so much that in 1760 he invented bifocals. Bifocals are eyeglasses that contain a lens designed for distance vision on the top and a different lens at the bottom focused for near vision. In special life styles, trifocals are designed to allow clear vision at distance, intermediate, and near vision. These multi-purpose eyeglasses save many people a great deal of bother by eliminating the constant changing of glasses for different activities.
For over 150 years, this progressive decrease in accommodation with aging was thought to be a loss of lens flexibility often referred to as lens sclerosis. This theory was developed by Helmholtz in 1855 and was accepted as truth until 1994. Thanks to the genius of Dr. Ronald Schachar, MD, Ph.D., our understanding of lens accommodation (how the lens moves during near vision tasks) is now proven. The lens does not lose its elasticity with age. Nor does the ciliary muscle grow weaker with age. What does happen, as proven by Dr. Schachar, is simply that the human lens continues to grow concentrically similar to the growth of an onion. This growth, in time, begins to crowd the space between the human lens and the ciliary muscle. The result is a progressive reduction in the effective function of the muscle, thus leading to the continuous decrease of accommodation.
Presbyopia Surgery
The growth in size of the lens in the confines of the eye cause it to lose its ability to focus. An increase in the amount of room these muscles have to work is accomplished by placing four small arched implants around the sclera or white part of the eye overlying these muscles. These small arched implants are placed in pocket-like tunnels made with the precision of a pre-set and calibrated diamond blade to an exact position. This procedure is performed under topical eye drop anesthesia. The patient may have monitored anesthesia. Currently only the dominant eye is operated upon. FDA monitored clinical trials have begun in December 2003. Dr. Soloway has been appointed the Medical Director of the Refocus Group, is the Medical Monitor for the US Phase II clinical trials and continues his role as the principal investigator at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. For those patients that do not fit into the United States FDA monitored protocol, Dr. Soloway still travels to the Ameri-Med hospital in Cancun, Mexico with his patients who have the surgery. If you are interested in this surgery, please e-mail us at Vista Alliance
|
