By Chenoa McKnight
Verisye lens eye surgery is a breakthrough in the United States, after long being practiced in Europe, and promises to bring people not eligible for LASIK, out of darkness.
'Basically it is a life changing experience for the people who have had a prescription too high for LASIK,? said Shirley Frazier, a refractive surgery coordinator for the Excel Eye Center.
The Verisyse lens was approved September 2004, for severely nearsighted people and those not eligible for LASIK because they have thin corneas. The number of candidates for Verisyse is small because few people are severely nearsighted.
?The lens is not new; it?s been around for decades,? said Dr. Maureen Lundergan, from the Vision Correction Centers at Laser Eye Site based in Salt Lake City. ?But the application for using the lens is new.?
Verisyse is comparable to cataract surgery because it involves inserting a lens within the eye. However, cataract surgery involves replacing the natural lens of the eye, whereas Verisyse places a new lens on the natural eye.
The Verisyse lens is inserted in the space between the cornea and the iris and is securely fastened to the iris with souters. The lens is practically invisible to the human eye.
?LASIK is great, but this technology offers hope to people who?ve had no hope,? said Myrna Church, refractive coordinator and licensed practical nurse at the Moran Eye Center. ?In high levels of correction, where they are not functional people without their glasses, they couldn?t get themselves out of a building.?
Because the procedure is fairly new, few ophthalmologists are certified to perform it.
?Frankly it is a fairly delicate surgery to learn,? Church said. ?It is kind of like one those butterfly surgeries that takes a little finesse to do it.?
Advanced Medical Optics, the distributor of the Verisyse lens, listed at least six ophthalmologists in Utah certified to perform the Verisyse procedure on its Web site.
One certified ophthalmologist is Dr. Majid Moshirfar, director of the Corneal and Refractive Surgery Division at the John Moran Eye Center.
?The beauty of this surgery, unlike LASIK, is that it is reversible,? Moshirfar said.
Both Lundergan and Moshirfar worked with the Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City as part of the research team for Verisyses? clinical trials. Since September, Moshirfar performed 12 to 16 Verisyse surgeries, and he did 7 percent of the 662 clinical trial procedures.
The Verisyse surgery takes less than an hour and an anesthetic is used. The non-dominant eye is done the first day of surgery and within one to three months, when the vision in that eye stabilizes, the second is done, Church said.
Once the lens is in place between the cornea and the iris, small souters are used to keep the lens in place. During the first few weeks following surgery, the souters are removed one at a time. As each souter is removed the patients? vision improves.
After surgery most patients have 20/30 to 20/40 vision, good enough to drive a car.
?We do get 20/20,? Church said. ?But this is bringing someone into a functional world of vision where they haven?t been before. It?s incredible technology.?
Under-correction, over-correction, glare, halo and dry eyes are some of the side effects of both LASIK and Verisyse surgery, Moshifar said. There is the possibility that Verisyse can damage the cornea and lead to problems with cataracts, but in clinical trials no one experienced damage to their cornea, and only one patient had problems with cataracts.
?In my opinion for extremely nearsighted people this technology is superior to LASIK,? Moshirfar said.
The Verisyse lens is distributed by Advanced Medical Optics and produced by Ophtec, a company based in the Netherlands. Verisyse costs twice as much as LASIK because it is a more extensive procedure and the cost of the lens is a factor.