Her progressing cortical cataracts were interfering with her work, and she came from far away wishing for cataract surgery with multifocal intraocular lenses. She is a musician and wished to see her sheet music, students and audience; she had advanced medical care insurance, so we chose the extended depth of focus TECNIS Symfony, which gives continuous vision from near to far.
We could have chosen a lens power giving 1.5 uncorrected at distance, but that would neglect near vision, and she had originally been mildly myopic, so she agreed to a target refraction of about −0.5 to −0.75 D (focal distance 2 to 1.3 m).
Both eyes dilated poorly due to iris atrophy, but the lens nuclei were not very hard, and the surgery was completed without problems.
We first operated on the left eye, where the cataract was more advanced, and decided the right eye's target refraction after she had checked her postoperative vision. As a result, uncorrected vision in each eye was 1.0 distance / 0.9 near, and she was very satisfied with smooth binocular vision at far, intermediate and near.
For patients coming from far away like her, we can recommend a hotel in Kichijoji about ten minutes by taxi from our clinic. If you would like this, please feel free to ask.
Cataract Surgery Cases / Case
Multifocal IOL
Case #18: Woman in her 50s from Ashiya, Hyogo (extended depth of focus multifocal lens: TECNIS Symfony)
This is an English translation of the original Japanese case report. If the two differ, the Japanese version takes precedence. Visual acuity is shown in decimal notation (1.0 ≈ 20/20).
Change in visual acuity (decimal; corrected values in parentheses)
Right eye: pre-op → post-op
Left eye: pre-op → post-op
2018.10.24
Patient questionnaire
Answers translated from Japanese.
- What was your condition before surgery?
My left eye's cataract made things dazzling, and my right eye tired easily trying to compensate for the left.
- What led you to have surgery?
An acquaintance referred me.
- Which did you choose, a multifocal lens or a monofocal lens?
I chose multifocal lenses.