Implantable Contact Lenses - What are Implantable Contact Lenses?

Also known as ICL, Implantable Contact Lens surgery is a common procedure for those who need vision correction but are not suitable candidates for LASIK Los Angeles patients may inquire about ICL when suffering severe myopia or when their corneas are too thin to be corrected with LASIK surgery. These lenses are placed inside the eye in a brief, outpatient procedure. They provide a permanent correction without the need for removal or cleaning. Some of these lenses can correct for reading vision too, an advantage for patients over 45 years old.

Los Angeles LASIK surgeon Dr. Robert Maloney was an authorized FDA principal investigator for the Implantable Contact Lens and had been performing the procedure in Los Angeles for over 20 years.

The Visian Implantable Collamer Lens is one type of Phakic Intraocular Lens which is manufactured from a soft foldable polymeric material called Collamer. The cornea is actually comprised of collagen and so this material provides excellent biocompatibility and superior optical capability. It is readily implanted in your eye behind the iris, or colored part of the eye, by gently folding it and injecting into the anterior chamber through a tiny incision only 3.0mm in length placed by the eye surgeon at the clear edge of the cornea.

The Visian ICL and its unique Collamer composition offer numerous advantages including:

• Quality of Vision - The Visian ICL produces not only improved visual acuity (20/20 vision is considered normal visual acuity), but also excellent visual quality. Many Los Angeles vision correction surgery patients experience the "Wow" factor when they experience the immediate improvement in the quality of their vision.


• Biocompatibility - Collamer, the 100 percent pure collagen copolymer lens material of the Visian ICL, is not viewed as a foreign object by the body's immune system.


• Versatility - The Visian ICL offers a wider treatment range for myopia than LASIK and PRK procedures.


• Simplicity - Unlike traditional contact lenses, once the Visian ICL is implanted in the eye, there is no additional maintenance needed.


• Safety - After implantation in over 55,000 eyes worldwide, the Visian ICL has established a proven track record of safety.


• Lens Placement - The placement of the Visian ICL makes the lens invisible to the patient and any observer.


• Removable - The Visian ICL was designed to be permanently placed in the eye. However, the lens can be removed if a patient's vision changes or if it otherwise needs to be removed or replaced.

After the surgery a post operative inspection is conducted in which the vision in each eye is checked, and the pressure in each eye is also checked. Implantable Contact Lenses are not recommended for everyone, and these procedures should only be performed by qualified eye surgeons. Visit your local ophthalmologist today to see if you might be a candidate for the Visian ICL.