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Implantable contact lenses new alternative to LASIK

By Barbara Grijalva - email 

It's one of the latest things in corrective eye surgery -- an alternative to LASIK.

It's implantable contact lenses. KOLD News 13 went into a Tucson surgical suite to see how it's done.

Without her glasses, Patricia Larson can't function.

She can't even see the big "E" on the eye chart.

"I can see some cloudy color, but I wouldn't know it was an E," she says. 

That's why she has decided to have her vision corrected with Implantable Collamer Lens surgery, or ICL.

She says she expects a lot of the surgery, "to walk out being able to see without glasses."

In less than an hour, ophthalmologist, Dr. James Goldman, of the Eye Institute of Southern Arizona, performs the surgery to correct Larson's nearsightedness.

She's awake, but sedated.

Drops numb her eyes.

"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.

"It works very well. And increasingly, this technology is supplanting LASIK," Dr. Goldman says.

The incisions close up on their own. No stitches needed.

And, unlike LASIK that actually reshapes the eye, ICL is reversible.

ICL does cost a bit more than LASIK.

"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.

You don't have to tell Larson that.

Soon after her surgery, she not only could see the big E on the eye chart without her glasse, she was working her way down to the smaller letters.

As with any procedure, there can be complications so patients need to consider those too.

The procedure costs a little more than $3,000 per eye. Insurance does not pay for it.