The use of standard monofocal aspheric lens implants to replace a cataract and correct myopia or hyperopia is well established. In the past few years, Toric implants to correct pre-existing corneal astigmatism and multifocal lens implants to correct presbyopia (reading difficulty) have become established in an effort to reduce spectacle dependency after cataract surgery.

One group of patients was however unable to benefit from multifocal lens implants. These were patients who had significant corneal astigmatism of 1D or more. A new development is the multifocal toric lens implant or Aspheric Restor Toric lens implant (ART lens) from Alcon.

The ART lens combines spherical (ie myopia and hyperopia) correction, astigmatic correction and presbyopia correction all in one lens! It is like the ‘mother of all lenses’!

The new Aspheric Restor Toric lens: Note the alignment dots, 3 on each side and the central diffractive rings that confer multifocality. Dr Yeoh from ERS has used all the different types of Alcon lenses for many years and he was involved in the preliminary implantation of ART lenses from September 2010. Since then, his patients with the ART lenses implanted have all achieved very good results, with very few needing to use glasses at all. He is now involved in launching this lens and training new surgeons in its usage in Singapore and in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and India.

The new ART lens now allows most patients, even those with astigmatism to achieve a full range of vision, better than they ever had even before they developed cataracts. Source: ERS