Horseshoe-Shaped Exchangeable Lens Platform for Capsular Bag Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intraocular lens (IOL) support platforms fail to accommodate varying eye sizes and shapes, leading to instability and difficulty in removing IOLs without damaging the eye, as they do not adapt to individual capsular bag structures and can cause tissue growth and fibrosis, making replacement challenging.
Innovation Solution
A new exchangeable lens platform with a horseshoe-shaped ring structure and memory strip that folds to fit within capsular bags of different sizes, securely engaging haptic components to stabilize IOLs and prevent fibrosis, allowing for easy insertion and potential replacement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed rigid support platform is used for IOL, then the IOL can be securely held in place, but it cannot adapt to varying eye sizes and shapes, leading to instability
Solution Approach 1:
The support platform transitions from a rigid fixed structure to a dynamic flexible membrane that can adapt its shape and size. The membrane's inherent flexibility allows it to conform to different capsular bag dimensions while maintaining structural integrity and IOL stability through tissue engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs a flexible membrane as the support platform structure. This thin film can be inserted in a compressed state and then expands to engage the capsular bag, providing adaptability to various eye sizes and shapes while maintaining sufficient rigidity to stabilize the IOL through haptic engagement.
2Ease of operation
If current support platforms are used, then IOLs can be implanted, but they cannot be safely removed without damaging the eye due to tissue growth and fibrosis
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible membrane is designed to be extractable from the eye. After serving its purpose of stabilizing the IOL during the critical healing period, the membrane can be completely removed without causing damage, as it does not permanently integrate with the tissue unlike traditional rigid platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The membrane's dynamic nature allows it to be inserted, held in place during healing, and then removed when no longer needed. This temporal adaptability enables easy IOL replacement while avoiding the permanent tissue adhesion problems of fixed platforms.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a flexible structure is used to adapt to eye shapes, then adaptability improves, but structural stability and secure IOL engagement may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The membrane exhibits different mechanical properties in different regions: it is flexible and conformable where it contacts the capsular bag, but becomes sufficiently rigid when engaged by the haptics to provide stable IOL support. This localized variation in structural properties resolves the contradiction between flexibility and stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The membrane appears to combine materials or structural features that provide both flexibility for adaptation and rigidity for stabilization. This composite approach allows the single structure to fulfill both contradictory requirements of conforming to varying eye shapes while securely holding the IOL.
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 platform provides a stable, adaptable solution for IOL support and orientation, reducing the risk of tissue entanglement and enabling secure, safe removal and replacement of IOLs by accommodating various eye structures and preventing unwanted movement or fibrosis.
Implementation Method 1
which has a memory strip incorporated therein
Data Source
AI summary
An exchangeable lens platform (ELP) comprises a horseshoe-shaped ring structure, which has a memory strip incorporated therein, into which the haptic end components of the intraocular lens (IOL) can engage diametrically opposite portions of the ring structure. In this manner, the exchangeable lens platform (ELP) can not only be opened or expanded so as to be disposed within any sized capsular bag in a secure and stabilized manner, but diametrically opposite portions of the exchangeable lens platform (ELP) can effectively fold upon themselves such that the exchangeable lens platform (ELP) will effectively be partially folded in half such that the diametrically opposite folded portions of the exchangeable lens platform (ELP) can effectively engage diametrically opposed internal wall portions of the fornix of the capsular bag so as to permit the intraocular lens (IOL) to then be properly centered, oriented, stabilized, and secured within the eye. In addition, since the haptic components of the intraocular lens (IOL) are disposed upon the exchangeable lens platform (ELP) and do not engage internal peripheral wall portions of the capsular bag, the intraocular lens (IOL) can be removed and replaced with another intraocular lens (IOL).