Cataract, is an opacification of the eye’s crystalline lens which leads to deterioration in visual performance and, if left untreated, can result to blindness. Cataract patients suffer from blurred vision, sensitivity to light, night vision problems, colour perception deficiencies etc. Cataracts, along with the uncorrected refractive error, are the principal cause of blindness and severe visual loss in people above the age of 40 accounting for approximately 50% of global blindness. It is estimated that approximately 95 million people worldwide are suffering from cataract. It is strongly related to ageing with reported incidence of cataracts in adults above the age of 50 coming up to 47.8%. In Europe, 5% of the population in the age range 52-62 years old suffers from cataract whereas those numbers increase to 30% for 60-69 years old and 64% for people above 70 years of age.
Cataracts are usually treated with lens replacement surgery (or cataract surgery). Typically, during a cataract surgery, an ophthalmic surgeon opens the front portion of the elastic-like capsular bag that serves as a protective barrier for the back of the eye and holds the natural lens of the eye it in place (A). The lens is then removed (B) through the opening and an IOL implant is positioned in its place within the capsular bag (C). Similarly, presbyopia and high refractive errors can be treated with lens replacement surgery, providing advanced visual performance to millions of people worldwide.
Cataract surgery is one of the safest, most common and oldest procedures performed worldwide. Nonetheless, a significant number of patients who undergo treatment end up with a non-optimum free of glasses or need of additional surgery visual outcome. fixOflex’sTM objective is to complement such a surgical procedure and provide the ability to achieve such optimum results
