Multifocal Lens Helps Cataract Patients

Patients with cataracts who underwent multifocal intraocular lens implantation showed significant

improvements in vision compared with patients who received a monofocal intraocular lens, according to a report published in Ophthalmology.
Drs. Jonathan C. Javitt, from Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, and Roger F. Steinert, from Harvard Medical School, in Boston, report the results of a prospective, randomized, double-blind, multicenter clinical trial with 245 cataract patients. After undergoing cataract extraction, 127 subjects received bilateral multifocal intraocular lens implants (IOL) and 118 subjects received identically constructed bilateral monofocal IOLs.
Patients who received the multifocal IOL showed significantly better uncorrected and distance corrected binocular visual acuity at 3 months after surgery than patients who received a monofocal IOL. Also, significantly more patients in the multifocal IOL group had 20/40 and J3 (Jaeger) or better uncorrected, binocular distance and near visual acuities.
The investigators found that, overall, multifocal lens patients reported wearing glasses significantly less often than patients who received monofocal lenses. Multifocal lens patients also wore glasses significantly less often for near vision than monofocal lens patients. However, for distance vision, no significant difference was seen between the lens groups.
Without glasses, multifocal lens patients had significantly less limitation in function than monofocal lens patients. These functions included near vision-related activities, social activities, and overall activities. With glasses, there was not a significant difference between the groups.
Although patients in the multifocal lens group reported significantly more glare, halos, or rings around lights with or without glasses than monofocal lens patients, the latter reported more trouble with vision when not wearing glasses.

Judith Lee