Smart Lenses For Presbyopia, Progressive Myopia And Cataract Surgery

Smart lenses have been receiving increasing attention in the management of ophthalmic and ocular disease. They employ novel materials, microelectronics, advanced optics, microbatteries and artificial intelligence (AI), especially in the management of presbyopia, cataract surgery, and progressive myopia. Our purpose is to review and evaluate the recent literature relating to smart contact lenses for the treatment of these conditions.

Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, University of Illinois College of Medicine 

We used Google Scholar to review 4,563 articles and interrogated the results of “smart lens” or “accommodating lenses” and “[disease state]” ([disease state] including presbyopia, cataract surgery, and progressive myopia) for the period of 2000-2023. Our review included 167, 411, 578, 576, 686, 795, 725, 625 articles from the periods of 2000-02, 2003-05, 2006-08, 2009-11, 2012-14, 2015-17, 2018-20, and 2021-23 respectively. We evaluated the advances in smart lens and accommodating lens features, including drug delivery, antenna technology, wireless communication, IOP sensing, microprocessors, low-power electronics and rechargeable batteries. We tabulated the percent increase for every interval and caluclated the annual growth rates.

The annual growth rate for presbyopia, cataract surgery and myopia ranged between 4-94% (average: 41%). For the period of 2015-2023, key smart lens features included drug delivery (7/59), antenna (6/59), wireless communication (5/59), IOP sensing  (4/59), microprocessor (4/59), low power electronics (2/59) and rechargeable battery (1/59) for presbyopia. Accommodating lenses for presbyopia included drug delivery (2/138) and antenna (1/138). Smart lens reports for cataract surgery included drug delivery (6/42), IOP sensing (3/42), antenna (1/42), microprocessor (1/42), rechargeable battery (1/42). Smart lenses for progressive myopia included drug delivery (7/46), antenna (4/46), IOP sensing (6/46) and rechargeable battery (1/46).

Smart lenses have great applications in the management of presbyopia, cataract surgery and progressive myopia, showing improved features and substantial advances in materials, microelectronics, antennas, and drug delivery technologies since 2015. Additional details and illustrative examples of the advantages and limitations of smart lenses will be provided.