Accommodating Intraocular Lens Fluid Redistribution Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional intraocular lenses primarily designed for distance vision fail to correct presbyopia, requiring patients to use reading glasses, and existing refractive error correction surgeries like LASIK do not effectively address presbyopia, leaving an unmet need for a surgical solution that can treat both cataracts and presbyopia, especially in the aging population.
Innovation Solution
An accommodating intraocular lens with a flexible membrane and a base lens configuration that maintains a constant volume, allowing fluid to redistribute and change power, minimizing biocompatibility issues and incision size, and enabling precise control over power adjustment during surgery, with radially compressive forces concentrated on the membrane or optic to facilitate curvature changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If fluid optics require a changing volume to change power, then power adjustment is achieved, but non-uniform power change and non-uniform buckling of the flexible membrane occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state parameter of the fluid from compressible to incompressible, maintaining constant volume while achieving power adjustment through fluid redistribution. This resolves the contradiction by enabling power change without the harmful volume expansion that causes non-uniform membrane buckling
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding fluid to change volume and power (conventional approach), the patent inverts the approach by using a constant volume of incompressible fluid that redistributes itself to change power. This inversion eliminates the volume change problem while maintaining power adjustment capability
2Adaptability or versatility
If larger IOL volume is used to accommodate fluid reservoirs, then power changing feature is achieved, but biocompatibility issues and incision size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the external fluid reservoir from the IOL system, using instead a compact closed volume integrated within the lens structure. This removes the need for large external components, reducing biocompatibility issues and incision size while maintaining power changing capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent nests the fluid-containing closed volume within the IOL structure itself, rather than requiring external reservoirs. This nested integration dramatically reduces the overall system size, allowing implantation through smaller incisions with fewer biocompatibility concerns
3Adaptability or versatility
If radially compressive forces are applied to change membrane curvature, then power change is achieved, but forces may be non-uniformly distributed
Solution Approach 1:
The incompressible fluid serves itself by automatically redistributing under applied forces to achieve uniform pressure distribution across the membrane. This self-regulating fluid mechanism ensures uniform force transmission without requiring complex external control systems
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses hydraulic principles with incompressible fluid to transmit and distribute compressive forces uniformly across the flexible membrane. The fluid acts as a pressure distribution medium, ensuring even force application that produces uniform membrane curvature change
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides stable refraction, faster healing, and improved optical quality by maintaining a constant volume, reducing the need for anesthesia and sutures, and allowing for greater control over power adjustments, effectively addressing presbyopia and cataracts in a single surgical intervention.
Implementation Method 1
The fluid redistributes itself within a closed volume as the power changes
Implementation Method 2
As the flexible membrane changes in curvature, fluid adhesion or surface tension will operate to pull the optic toward the flexible membrane
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 2C
AI summary
An accommodating intraocular lens (IOL) can be implanted either alone or as part of a two-part lens assembly. The IOL comprises an optic, a flexible membrane and a peripheral edge coupling the optic and the flexible membrane. The peripheral edge comprises an external circumferential surface having a height and a force transmitting area defined along a portion of the height of the external circumferential surface. A closed volume spaces apart the optic and the flexible membrane. The optic is axially displaced and the flexible membrane changes in curvature about a central axis when a radial compressive force is applied to the force transmitting area. A volume defined by the closed volume remains fixed when the optic is axially displaced and the flexible membrane changes in curvature and/or when the radial compressive force is applied to the force transmitting area.