Early experience with soft hydrogel lens implants.

A new material which more closely mimics the properties of living tissue than polymethylmethacrylate is under investigation. Twelve hydrogel lenses were placed into the ciliary sulcus following the standard nucleus extraction technique and 38 were placed into the lens capsule using the endocapsular technique. Six months following surgery 66 per cent of sulcus fixated lenses were found to have both haptics in the sulcus and 76 per cent of capsule fixated lenses were found to have both haptics encapsulated. The hydrogel lens was found to be well tolerated within the eye with 32 per cent of eyes achieving a visual acuity of 6/5 and 94 per cent achieving 6/12 or better.