Light Adjustable Lens 3.0 – The New Activshield Technology

The light-adaptable lens (LAL) has been implemented successfully in refractive cataract surgery at the Ruhr University Eye Hospital Bochum for more than 10 years. Especially in cases with difficult biometry, e.g. after previous refractive corneal surgery, the postoperative results in terms of achieving the target refraction can be significantly improved.

As part of the adjustment of the LAL postoperatively, patients have to wear UV protective goggles until the final login. This is the only way to prevent an uncontrolled change in the IOL refractive power.

Ruhr University Eye Hospital, Bochum, Germany

With reduced compliance of LAL patients regarding to wear UV protective goggles postoperatively, uncontrolled, sometimes irreversible changes in refractive power can occur. The latest LAL generation has a special UV protection layer on the front surface of the IOL, the so-called ActivShield. This significantly reduces the sensitivity of the LAL to UV light in everyday life and thus prevents uncontrolled changes in refractive power without having to wear UV protecting goggles all the time. This special UV protection layer can be opened as part of the light treatment to adjust the LAL and then closed again. With this latest generation of LAL, refractive power adjustments may be possible long time after implantation.

The University Eye Hospital Bochum is the first center in the world to use this ActivShield technology for LAL implantation in daily business. First results show a very promising approach of this innovative technology. An adjustment of the IOL refractive power can therefore possibly be carried out long after the cataract surgery. This requires long-term studies, but the first results are already very promising. Thus, the LAL with ActivShield enables an even more individualized treatment of constantly changing lifestyles.

Overall, this highly individualized treatment approach shows that the optimized LAL technology with the ActivShield is trend-setting and may also enable refractive power adjustments long time after cataract surgery. This allows us to respond even more individually to the constantly changing living conditions of our patients.