"For a corneal correction of presbyopia to provide a broad depth of focus is exciting news for refractive surgery," according to Dr Vance Thompson, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA, speaking of his experiences using the KAMRA inlay (AcuFocus, Irvine, California, USA) at this year's meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS). During the same session several doctors revealed their findings using the KAMRA inlay, including an analysis of task performance after implantation, improvements to near vision in emmetropic presbyopic patients, as well as results of simultaneous implantation of the inlay with LASIK.

Quality of life

Dr Thompson examined the task performance of his patients post-implantation. He enrolled 44 patients out of the current IDE total of 507 patients. The patients were between 45 and 60 years of age and ranged from +0.5 to –0.75 D. Dr Thompson said, "In our group of patients their near vision started out blurry but postimplantation there was an improvement to, on average, J2."

Additionally, Dr Thompson was intrigued about the intermediate visual acuity (VA) gains that could be achieved as it is normally sacrificed when improving near vision. "We found that intermediate vision slightly improved postimplantation.As our society spends a lot of time on computers this is a very important functional distance," he added. "We also saw a nice preservation in our study group's distance vision, which is something that is not achievable with lasers."

Dr Thompson also examined the patients' quality of life after 18 months post-op. He said, "We asked the patients how easy it is for them to perform various everyday tasks at far, intermediate and near distances." Preoperatively, all patients had difficulty reading or viewing a computer screen without glasses, but Dr Thompson said the KAMRA inlay changed that. "After implantation you can see a nice improvement in the intermediate range, looking at the computer screen. You go a little nearer and ask the patients to view a newspaper or a menu and you see a dramatic improvement. Everything is much easier after the implant, even driving at night patients felt comfortable," he added.