[louprado]

Regarding a comment the author made in passing:

For the increasing number of people who have cataract surgery, the eye’s lenses have ben replaced with plastic, which usually have a fixed focus. (Artificial lenses that can be focused are under development.)

My dad recently had cataract surgery and I just assumed he was getting would be a deformable lens that would give him the ability to focus again. Does anyone know why it is so hard to develop such a lens ? As far as medical breakthroughs it seems like low hanging fruit and most people over the age of 45 could benefit from such a surgery since that is the age at which our lenses begin to harden and can no longer be shaped by our ciliary muscles.

[all2]

> Does anyone know why it is so hard to develop such a lens ? As far as medical breakthroughs it seems like low hanging fruit ...

Not in medicine or medical research, so great grains of salt required.

1) immune rejection

2) non-degradable

3) same modulus of elasticity as a biological lens (and maintains elasticity)

4) (relatively) cheap source materials

5) (relatively) cheap manufacture

6) survive all testing; up to FDA approval

Can anyone in medicine comment on this?

[beautifulfreak]

There's a relevant article on the HN front page now. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-gore-artificial-corn...

[fhars]

No, that‘s about cornea replacements and is irrelevant for the current discussion.

[fhars]

The lens is suspended by a ring of fibres about 1-2μm thick from the ciliar muscle. Getting accommodation to work with a synthetic lens would require a substitute suspension mechanism to attach the lens to the muscle. And it would probably be useful if it could be implanted without temporarily removing the front or the eye including the iris.

Compare that to a small cut to the side of the eye to extract the old lens and inject a new one that is held in place mechanically.