Aspheric Intraocular Lens Alignment for Shifting Retinal Focus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intraocular lens systems for managing age-related macular degeneration lack flexibility to adjust to changes in the preferred retinal locus (PRL) without requiring further surgery and can cause secondary issues like glaucoma and reduced vision quality due to fixed lens configurations.
Innovation Solution
An intraocular lens system comprising two lenses with aspheric surfaces that allow for a continuum of retinal images to be focused across a range of eccentricities, eliminating the need for prismatic effects and enabling adjustment to changes in the PRL, while minimizing optical aberrations and tolerating variations in lens separation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If fixed lens configurations are used to provide magnified images focused on the PRL, then visual acuity is improved, but the system lacks flexibility to adjust to changes in PRL location without re-surgery
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dynamic adjustment mechanism that allows the intraocular lens system to change its optical configuration after implantation. The system can adjust the position or orientation of lens elements to realign the magnified image with the patient's preferred retinal locus as it shifts over time, eliminating the need for re-surgery while maintaining improved visual acuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs variable optical parameters such as adjustable focal length, magnification power, or lens separation distance. By changing these parameters post-implantation, the system can adapt to PRL location changes and maintain optimal image focus on the healthy retinal tissue, resolving the contradiction between fixed configuration and adaptability.
2Measurement precision
If telescopic lenses are implanted in the anterior chamber to provide magnification, then visual resolution is improved, but secondary pathology such as glaucoma and corneal damage may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent relocates the telescopic lens system from the anterior chamber to the posterior chamber or vitreous cavity, changing the spatial dimension of implantation. This dimensional shift moves the lenses away from the cornea and anterior structures, eliminating corneal damage and glaucoma risks while preserving the magnification function for improved visual resolution through healthy macular tissue.
3Ease of operation
If a diverging IOL is displaced perpendicular to the optic axis to create a prismatic effect, then light can be focused eccentric to fixation, but the system becomes highly dependent on fixed lens separation distances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the prismatic function from the lens displacement mechanism and replaces it with dedicated prismatic lens elements or free-form surface designs. This allows eccentric light focusing to be achieved through the optical design itself rather than precise mechanical positioning, reducing dependence on fixed lens separation distances and simplifying the overall system configuration.
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 system provides stable, high-quality retinal images across a range of eccentricities, reducing the need for re-surgery and minimizing refractive errors, even with anatomical and surgical variations.
Implementation Method 1
at least one surface of the lens (and preferably both surfaces) is configured to include asphericity to provide for a continuum of retinal images to be focused at the retina in an area between two retinal eccentricities
Data Source
AI summary
A lens for use in an intraocular lens system for treating age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the lens including an anterior surface, a posterior surface, and a plurality of haptics configured to align the anterior light-converging intraocular lens with an optical axis of the eye. The plurality of haptics may have a symmetrical design and comprising ciliary-sulcus-engaging surfaces configure to position the lens within in a ciliary sulcus of an eye. At least one of the anterior surface and the posterior surface may be rendered as aspherical surfaces selected to induce spherical aberration while minimizing optical aberration and thereby provide for a continuum of retinal images to be focused at an area macula of a retina of the eye between two retinal eccentricities.