Vault Evaluation Five Years After Implantable Phakic Contact Lens Surgery

To evaluate the stability of the postoperative vault of the Intraocular Phakic Contact Lens (IPCL) five years after implantation.

Clínica de Ojos Dr. Nano, Olivos (Buenos Aires), Argentina.

A retrospective single-center case-series study was performed, including myopic patients operated with the IPCL lens for spherical correction in which preoperative data were compared with different scenarios of the postoperative vault at 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years after surgery.

The main parameter to be evaluated was the vault obtained 5 years after surgery, summarizing the cases that achieve normal, low (< 250 mμ), or high vault (> 750 mμ). 

In addition, the presence of iridociliary cysts was evaluated by ultrabiomicroscopy and the results obtained for visual performance, intraocular pressure (IOP), and endothelial cell density (ECD) five years after surgery were compared.

A total of 140 eyes of 72 patients, aged 31.9 ±2.8 years old (21-50) were included. 

Most of the eyes (78.6 %) obtained a vault between 250 to 750 mμ, while in 15% of the eyes, it was less than 250 mμ, and 6.4% were greater than 750 mμ.

The vault evaluated 1, 3, and 5 years after surgery remained stable.

Sub-capsular cataracts were detected in two eyes, with vault < 250 mμ.

A total of 50 eyes (35.7 %) had cysts in the sulcus (5 cases in the group of eyes with vault > 750 mμ).

No changes were detected concerning IOP (p 0.3) or ECD (p; 0.10).

In eyes implanted with the IPCL lens over five years, it has been observed that the vault remained stable over time. The proportion of eyes with cysts was higher in eyes with vaults larger than 750 mμ.