New IOL appears to provide good results

The new EC-3 hydrophobic acrylic IOL (Aaren Scientific) appears to provide good visual results with little PCO and a zero incidence of the vacuoles, or glistening, reported with older hydrophobic IOLs, reports Christophe Pey MD, Le Puy en Velay, France.

'The EC-3 has remained well-centred and transparent through the nearly four years of follow-up at our centre, with no appearance of intra-lenticular vacuoles,' he told the XXIX Congress of the ESCRS.

Dr Pey presented the 46.8-month results of 62 eyes of patients who underwent implantation of the new lens as part of an international multicentre trial begun in April 2007 involving a total of 354 patients.

Inclusion criteria for the study were a minimum age of 50 years, a best corrected visual acuity no better than 20/40, less than 1.5 D of corneal cylinder, no significant retinal or corneal disease, and clear intraocular media. Dr Pey noted that all of the patients at his centre underwent phacoemulsification followed by insertion of the EC-3 IOL through a 3.2mm incision.

Dr Pey said that the BCVA results in the patients at his centre were very satisfactory, with all eyes achieving 20/40 or better. In addition, the BCVA was 20/32 in 98.4 per cent, 20/25 or better in 90.2 per cent, and 20/20 or better in 61.3 per cent. The patients' mean BCVA was 20/32, he said.

The patients' age did not appear to have much effect on visual results. That is, mean logMAR visual acuity was 0.0 among patients aged 60 years or younger, 0.03 among those aged 60 and 69 years, and also 0.03 among those aged 80 to 89 years.

Dr Pey noted that the incidence of PCO was low. Slit lamp examination showed that posterior capsule fibrosis occurred in 10 per cent of eyes, but 77.0 per cent had no PCO at four years, 16 per cent had a minimal amount, seven per cent had a moderate amount and there was no incidence of dense PCO in any eyes. Moreover, none have yet required YAG laser capsulotomy.

In addition, and in contrast to older hydrophobic IOLs, there were no glistenings in the implanted lenses in any eyes after four years. That compared to a six per cent incidence of glistenings in the contralateral eyes of patients implanted with older hydrophobic IOLs. In the eyes with the older IOLs the glistenings were grade +1 in three per cent and grade +2 in three per cent.

The EC-3 intraocular lens has a hydrophobic acrylic optic with a UV blocker and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) haptics. Its square edged optic has a diameter of 6.0mm and the implant's overall length is 13.00mm. The lens is CE-marked and FDA approved and has been implanted in 10,000 eyes.

'Patients implanted with the lens out of our centre and followed for four years have demonstrated excellent visual acuity outcomes, low complication rates, no glistening and no YAG laser procedures,' Dr Pey concluded.

contact
Christophe Pey – christophe.pey@wanadoo.fr