ICL- Implantable Contact Lenses Information Guide

KOLD News 13 went into a Tucson surgical suite to see how ICL surgery actually happens and how it can potentially replace Lasik surgery and become a strong alternative. If you know recently, STARR Visian ICL sales grew by over 60% and Lasik sales fell by 40% which clearly indicates that people and doctors (surgeons) are moving towards ICL and leaving Lasik behind.

Lasik will slowly become totally outdated in the market as ICL takes over. A clinical trial patient Patricia Larson was chosen for ICL surgery. Patricia can’t even see big E on the eye chart, she gets cloudy images. That’s why she has decided to have her vision corrected with Implantable Collamer Lens surgery, or ICL.

In less than an hour, ophthalmologist, Dr. James Goldman, of the Eye Institute of Southern Arizona, performs the surgery to correct Larson’s nearsightedness. There are many people who may have been told in the past they are not good LASIK candidates, but may be excellent candidates for the ICL because it doesn’t matter the shape or thickness of your cornea,” Dr. Goldman says.

Here’s how the procedure works.

The doctor makes a very tiny incision on the eyeball, then injects the soft lens, which unfolds. He then positions it. The incisions close up on their own. No stitches needed. And, unlike LASIK that actually reshapes the eye, ICL is reversible. That means you can redo another operation of ICL trated eye or go back to where you started like undo ICL surgery. Lasik does not provide this option, once lasik is done you are pretty much done for that eye, you can’t do anything if the lasik isnt successful.

Considering the risk involved in Lasik, ICL is 1000% more risk free since it can be reversed. One of the reason more and more patients are going for ICL. When you look at that cost over time and safety considerations, coupled with reversibility, and better quality vision, it’s a pretty negligible difference,” Dr. Goldman says.

ICL procedure costs a little more than $3,000 per eye. Insurance does not pay for it. However you may find a medical insurer soon who can cover for ICL surgery procedures as ICL becomes more mainstream.

STAAR Visian Toric ICL (Implantable Contact Lenses) offers a safe and effective refractive treatment option for patients with even high levels of Astigmatism.

State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has allowed the marketing of STAAR Visian(TM) Toric Implantable Collamer Lens for the treatment of nearsightedness and astigmatism. The Visian Myopic ICL was approved in China during July 2006.

According to data presented at an ophthalmic meeting in Japan during January, STAAR’s Visian ICL and TICL were used in approximately 60% of Myopia and astigmatism surgeries.

Made of STAAR’s proprietary, highly biocompatible Collamer(R) material, the ICL, TICL and the ICH are the only minimally invasive foldable lenses.

The toric ICL is a posterior chamber sulcus fixated phakic IOL that can correct up to -19.0 D myopia and 6.0 D cylinder. The nice thing about the toric ICL, unlike the toric IOL, is that it doesn’t rotate in the eye, except in cases of trauma.

Doctors say, “with Toric ICL, No patient lost any lines of vision.The nice thing about this approach is that, unlike LASIK you do not have to overcorrect.You get a very stable refraction from day one”.

The short-term results with the toric ICL are very encouraging.The accuracy is better than LASIK for high myopia.We get much better immediate and long-term results and stability than with LASIK.The surgery itself is not technically difficult, taking only 10 to 15 minutes on average.
The learning curve is short. It is much easier to learn than phaco.

Currently, The lowest correction available with the toric ICL is -1.25 D and 0.75 cylinder.The
highest correction is -14D, with 5 degrees of cylinder or -18D with a three-quarters
cylinder. Surgeons order custom-made lenses for each patient.

How Surgeons implants Toric ICL?

The toric ICL is provided with correct power and sphere, but cylinder axis is different by up to 20 degrees.The surgeon, therefore, needs to dial the lens into position.While at the slit-lamp Dr marks the cornea at the 90-degree axis, then in surgery he marks the axis the lens
is to be dialled into.

Surgeons around the world now prefers the ICL to the iris clip phakic IOL because there is no
concern about endothelial cell loss. Lasik is fast becoming a dead surgical technique to correct eyes/myopia/astigmatism or nearsightedness.

Ophthalmic products leader STAAR Surgical Company on Monday declared that sales of Visian ICL, an implantable contact lens, rose about 52 percent in the third quarter, primarily on the strength of greater international demand.

International sales of the ICL lens grew 65 percent as Visian ICL took a larger share of the market. Although laser vision correction procedures continued to decline in the U.S., STAAR said Visian revenue there increased 25 percent, which shows overall decline in the Lasik Surgery business and more and more people are opting for ICL than Lasik. ICL is treated as safe surgery to operate because you can correct the ICL surgery later, but Lasik if went wrong can’t be corrected. The risk is huge.

U.S. sales of the Visian lens have been relatively flat since the product was introduced, and totaled just over $1 million in the year-ago quarter. International sales were about $2.2 million.

The Visian lens is used to correct conditions including nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.