Intraocular Implant with Peripheral Lugs for Capsule Fixation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intraocular implant techniques face challenges in accurately centering the lens in the X-Y plane, ensuring proper rotational placement, and minimizing the size of the incision required for implantation, which can lead to difficulties in defining the optical power and stability of the lens within the eye.
Innovation Solution
The use of a lamina-based intraocular implant with lugs extending from a peripheral portion, secured using a femtosecond pulsed laser technique, allowing for precise engagement with the capsule and providing stability through mushroom-shaped heads and equidistant spacing, potentially eliminating the need for haptics and reducing the incision size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional haptic-based lens implantation is used, then the lens can be secured in the capsule, but the lens placement accuracy in the X-Y plane deteriorates due to pupil-capsule misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The implant is divided into separate functional components: the lens optic and the fixation lugs. The lugs are positioned at the periphery of the lens and extend through the capsule wall to engage with the iris, separating the optical function from the fixation function. This allows independent optimization of each component's position and function.
Solution Approach 2:
The fixation lugs extend in the Z-direction (perpendicular to the lens plane) through the capsule wall to engage with the iris in a different plane. This three-dimensional configuration allows the lens to be centered on the optical axis while the lugs provide secure fixation by engaging with the iris at a different spatial level.
2Reliability
If haptics are used to secure the lens, then the lens can be held in place, but the rotational placement accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The lugs are positioned asymmetrically at the periphery of the lens, with specific spacing and orientation relative to the optical axis. This asymmetric configuration, combined with the equidistant spacing of multiple lugs, provides both secure fixation and precise rotational control, as the symmetric arrangement of lugs around the periphery creates a unique rotational orientation that centers the lens on the optical axis.
Solution Approach 2:
The lugs are pre-positioned on the implant at specific locations and orientations before insertion. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the implant is inserted through the capsulotomy, the lugs automatically engage with the iris at the correct rotational orientation, eliminating the need for post-insertion adjustment and ensuring accurate rotational placement.
3Ease of operation
If conventional lens implantation through capsulotomy is used, then the lens can be introduced into the eye, but the incision size must be large to accommodate haptics
Solution Approach 1:
The haptic portion of the implant is extracted and replaced by thin fixation lugs that can pass through a small capsulotomy opening. The lugs are designed with a profile that allows them to be introduced through a minimal incision in the capsule wall, and they provide adequate fixation by engaging with the iris at the periphery, eliminating the need for large incisions required by conventional haptics.
Solution Approach 2:
The fixation lugs are designed with a thin profile that allows them to pass through a small capsulotomy opening. The lugs can be made from flexible or semi-rigid materials that allow them to bend and flex during insertion through the small opening, and then spring into place to provide secure fixation once past the capsulotomy.
4Reliability
If conventional implantation techniques are used, then the lens can be placed in the capsule, but the Z-direction placement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The lugs are pre-positioned on the implant at specific distances from the lens optic, establishing a predetermined Z-position relationship. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the implant is inserted and the lugs engage with the iris, the lens optic is automatically placed at the correct Z-height relative to the iris and capsule, providing precise control over the lens position in the vertical direction.
Solution Approach 2:
The fixation lugs act as intermediaries that transfer the positional information from the lens optic to the iris. By positioning the lugs at specific Z-heights and having them engage with the iris at known locations, the lugs mediate the relationship between the lens optic and the eye structures, ensuring accurate Z-direction placement of the lens relative to the iris and capsule.
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
This configuration enables reliable and secure attachment of the implant in the X-Y plane, precise rotational orientation, and defined placement in the Z-direction, facilitating accurate optical power and reducing recovery time by minimizing the incision size.
Implementation Method 1
A pulsed laser can be used to create an opening in the capsule, by photoablating capsular tissue along a predetermined boundary
Implementation Method 2
The needle is caused to vibrate at an ultrasonic frequency by the use of a magnetostrictive driver. The ultrasonic vibrations of the needle soften the lens and emulsify it.
Implementation Method 3
The needle is caused to vibrate at an ultrasonic frequency by the use of a magnetostrictive driver
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~6
Figure 7~9(e)
AI summary
An intraocular implant for use in a surgical procedure such as a cataract operation, or in a refractive-lens exchange surgery procedure, has a main portion (50,70,100,92,120,140) and a peripheral portion (52,72,84,102,124) peripheral to the main portion. The main portion is plate-like in shape and may be a lens or a plug for closing an aperture in the capsule of the eye. The implant has two or more lugs (54,74,80,104,90,126,142) extending from the peripheral portion in a direction substantially perpendicular to a plane of the main portion. The lugs extend either from haptics, which protrude from the main portion, or from a short extension of the edge of the main portion. A method for fixing the implant into the eye involves making two or more voids in the capsule wall, offering up the implant to the capsule, so that the lugs lie adjacent to the voids, and inserting the lugs into the voids.