St George’s Eye Care offers innovative new cataract lens

St George’s Eye Care is one of the first eye clinics in New Zealand to offer its cataract patients access to a new lens implant that delivers an extended range of vision.

The new Vivity intraocular lens (IOL) by Alcon incorporates innovative design features to improve near and intermediate vision, and reduce side effects of standard lenses.

After cataract surgery, most patients need reading glasses to help with near vision tasks, and many choose glasses with progressive lenses – allowing them to see close up and distant objects without having to change glasses.

Patients who don’t want to rely on glasses can choose multifocal intraocular lenses (IOL), but until now many have chosen not to because of side-effects of glare and haloes, which can be troublesome for night driving.

“Patients come to us with cataracts causing difficulty with driving due to glare from oncoming headlights, so they are often put off by the idea that their new lens will give rise to the same symptoms,” says Dr Oliver Comyn of St George’s Eye Care.

“The great feature of the new Vivity IOL is that it significantly reduces the occurrence of troublesome glare and halo side effects, and we hope more patients will be interested in this option for their cataract surgery,” he says.

Dr Comyn and fellow St George’s Eye Care ophthalmologist Dr Paul Baddeley have both used the new Vivity lens on patients, with excellent results.

“Implantation of the Vivity lens is no different from the standard procedure,” says Dr Baddeley. “If you are interested we advise you to see your optometrist first, who can make a referral for a consultation with Dr Comyn or myself.”