Crystalens™, is a unique focusing implantable lens that can help you see clearly at distance and intermediate and near range without being dependent on glasses or contact lenses. Crystalens™, is an accommodative intraocular lens implant which is used to replace the natural lens when it becomes cataractous. Crystalens™ is able to restore your eye's natural focusing ability by using a lens design that mimics the way the natural lens flexes and focuses.

How does it work?

Crystalens: Position of the lens is slightly forward in the eye when viewing a near object, (left)
and further back in the eye when viewing a distant object (right).

The Crystalens is designed to mimic the eye's natural process of accommodation. Near and intermediate vision result from the action of the focusing muscle in the eye, called the ciliary muscle. This muscle changes the power and thus the focus of the natural lens. This enables the eye to automatically focus to provide distance, intermediate, and near vision. As we age, the natural lens hardens and cannot bend to allow this range of vision.

If the lens becomes "cloudy" in addition to hardening, then the patient not only has presbyopia, but also has cataracts. The Crystalens is the only lens implant that has flexible hinges that allow it to bend with the ciliary muscle effectively moving it slightly forward and backward in the eye to imitate the way a patient's natural lens used to bend when they were younger.

Crystalens™ is implanted in the identical manner as other intraocular lenses. It can be implanted after the removal of the crystaline lens using the same technique as modern cataract surgery. This means your surgery can be performed on an outpatient patient basis and that you can resume your normal work and recreational activities soon after surgery.

The crystalens accommodating intraocular lens is engineered with a hinge designed to allow the optic, or part of the lens that you see through, to move back and forth as you constantly change focus on images around you.

The crystalens® is intended for the visual correction of aphakia secondary to the removal of a cataractous lens in adult patients with and without presbyopia.
In Clinical Trials:

• 98.4% of patients implanted with crystalens in both eyes could pass a driver's test without glasses

• 100% could see intermediate (24" to 30") without glasses, the distance for most of life's activities

• 98.4% could see well enough to read the newspaper and the phone book without glasses

• Some patients did require glasses for some tasks after implantation of the crystalens

• Significantly more patients implanted with a crystalens (88.4%) could see better at all distances then patients implanted with a standard IOL (35.9%)