Refractive Lens Exchange

Refractive Lens Exchange (Clear Lens Exchange)

Refractive lens exchange replaces your eye’s natural lens with an intraocular lens (IOL) to correct refractive errors and improve your vision. As a result, you may not need to wear glasses for contact lenses to see clearly.

Refractive lens exchange is an elective outpatient surgery that removes your eye’s natural lens and replaces it with an intraocular lens (IOL) that contains a vision prescription customized to your eyes permanently implanted in your eyes.

Refractive lens exchange offers an alternative to laser refractive surgery (LASIK / PRK).

Candidate for refractive lens exchange have typically past the age of 40 and have started to lose their natural near-focus capabilities related to aging, called presbyopia. Because laser refractive surgery doesn’t correct presbyopia, patients who have laser refractive surgery will require glasses for computer and reading. Refractive lens exchange offers patients a refractive surgery that can correct distance vision and also near vision with a multifocal IOL.

Monofocal IOLs correct vision at one range; distance, computer or reading. Depending on the distance corrected by the IOL, glasses will be prescribed for the uncorrected ranges. Multifocal IOLs correct multiple ranges and can eliminate the need for additional glasses.

What is the difference between cataract surgery and refractive lens surgery?

Both cataract surgery and refractive lens exchange are types of eye lens replacement surgery, which replaces the eye’s natural lens with an intraocular lens (IOL). The main difference is the reason for the surgery:

You have cataract surgery because your eye’s natural lens has become too discolored and cloudy to see clearly. A new clear IOL helps you see clearly again.
You have refractive lens exchange because refractive errors, including presbyopia, prevent you from seeing clearly, but you haven’t developed cataracts yet.