Are you happy with your Vivity IOL? Would you recommend it?
Posted , 15 users are following.
There have been plenty of discussions about Vivity but it is hard to figure out if people are overall happy with their decision to go with it or not. If you had Vivity implanted, could you kindly share your satisfaction with the lens and if you would choose it again. Also, how good is the vision at night in terms of contrast loss and night time driving.
For now I have catract in one eye only and I am struggling with the decision to go with Vivity or a monofocal. Being able to see close up is very nice but I would probably not go with it if it means sacrificing distance vision clarity and night time contrast loss. Thank you.
0 likes, 57 replies
Watt riz1027
Edited
Nine days post op here. I had cataracts in both eyes and had Vivity implanted in the left. I could see nothing but a bright blur for the first four days. My second post surgery exam yesterday recorded 20/40 .
My complaints are everything is blue like an old faded color photo. White is blue but black is dark gray. There is a lot of glare outdoors, indoors from windows and from lights. Even very small dim lights. Every light source produces halos. My doctor assures me that will all get better, as my cornea is still swollen.
What concerns me most is I cannot see detail in the shade and night vision is so poor I now refer to my cataract eye as my "good eye". The Vivity eye produces much worse glare and halos while night driving. Only the very brightest stars are visible in the night sky. What burns me the most is the only reason I sought surgery was to improve my night vision. So I feel I have gained nothing at all. Instead, just traded correctable vision for more night vision impairment.
I was scheduled to have the right eye done in three weeks but will be canceling it as am not going the make the same mistake again. Will be speaking with the surgon concerning my options. The best being with a little time all the complaints go away. Until then I am not willing to consider surgery on my cataract eye until its perception deteriorates below that of the Vivity eye.
RonAKA Watt
Edited
FWIW my opinion is that Vivity should only be used in one eye. The other eye should get a monofocal set for distance. The monofocal will offset to some degree the loss of contrast sensitivity loss in the Vivity eye. And, your brain will likely select the sharper distance vision image from the monofocal at night and potentially ignore the halos.
.
And for sure wait 6 weeks minimum before making a decision on the second eye. At 6 weeks the eye should be fully healed, and you will then see what the long term outcome is.
steven64823 Watt
Edited
My experience with Vivity is similar to Watt.
Firstly, a disclaimer: First post here after lurking for ages. I'm a layman - many of the terms used here are gobbledegook to me, so please forgive my lack of technical knowledge.
I'm six months in with Vivity in both eyes. My pre-surgery cataracts were described as 3 out of 5, so fairly mild. Also, my pre-surgery vision was 20/20 in one eye and mild correction in the other (~1.5d, from memory).
I now have Vivity set, I think, at ~1d to give better close vision.
First, the good. In bright sunlight outdoors I have acceptable vision - not sharp, but acceptable. Distance glasses crisps-up my vision. I can read computer and phone fairly comfortably. Books, newspapers etc require reading glasses. Car dashboard & instruments are clear.
But...... in general I am very, very disappointed. I have horrendous night glare and halos, to the extent I rarely drive at night now. Every pinpoint of light has huge spikes arranged in a halo around it. The light might be small, but the halo of spikes is approx. 5 to 10-times the diameter. Way worse than any of the demonstration images used in videos.
My medium to low light contrast loss is also very noticeable. Indoor lighting, cloudy days, shade etc. is poor - not only loss of contrast, but clarity goes in direct relation to the light intensity. I now have distance glasses which alleviate the clarity (mostly) but not the dullness. My low light and night vision feels like my eyes are smeared with vaseline. Foggy and blurry.
From lurking here and reading/watching everything I can get my hands on for the last six months I suspect I am one of those perfectionist patients. But....my uncorrected pre-operation vision (with "3/5" cataracts) was significantly better than my vision with Vivity in both eyes.
I keep waiting for the neuro-adaption to kick in, but nothing - just blurry unsatisfactory vision in anything other than bright sunlight outdoors.
I've just read the above-linked article "How Alcon’s Vivity is disrupting the Australian IOL landscape" and TBH am stunned at the claims. My experience after living with these lenses for six months could not be further than stated in that article.
I am willing to admit my experience is probably an outlier, but in my experience I would strongly caution anyone considering Vivity IOLs. I am bitterly disappointed with my new vision, to the extent it is affecting my mental health. I have days when it really gets me down, considering what my vision was and what it is now.
I'm not sure if any of this ^ helps anyone, but it sure has been cathartic writing it.
karin08666 steven64823
Edited
My heart goes out to you. Getting cataracts and having to go through the cataract journey is not easy. I truly feel doctors do not give their patients enough information and are not helping them pick a lens that will work best with their life. I went from wanting a Vivity and then changing to Eyhance because my doctor only uses J&J products and then ending up with a Tecnis 1 monofocal because I just couldn't get the questions I had about Eyhance answered to my satisfaction.
Letting people know about your experience will definitely help people be informed about what can happen with the Vivity lens. This forum has helped a lot of people and by sharing your experience I am sure it will help others.
RonAKA steven64823
Posted
There seems to be a range of vision that people get from the Vivity lens from excellent to not so good as you report. I think the best way to use the Vivity is to only use it in the non dominant near eye, and target it to -1.0 D. That should give good near vision. And in the other eye use a standard monofocal like the Clareon set for distance (-0.25 D). The hope is that the distance eye can compensate for the loss of contrast sensitivity, and the two eyes combined give a wide depth of focus. Unfortunately not many surgeons seem to use that approach.
laurie30147 steven64823
Edited
As I have written in other posts, I have two Vivity lenses in a mini monovision setup and I am very happy with it. My distance eye is about-0.25 and my close eye is -1.0. I can read just about anything and I never use glasses indoors. (And yes, the two eyes together provide good binocular vision.)
I agree that doctors do a very poor job of explaining any tradeoffs of different lenses and targets. My doc was not a very good communicator, BUT he was a highly rated doctor in a well known office, and we ended up with a good result.
In your case, having both eyes set to -1.0 would not likely achieve great distance vision, so there must have been a communication disconnect with the doctor, or a target miss. But your reading should be better than you report.
As for night driving, I wear distance glasses to bring my close eye up to snuff, for safety. Bringing that eye into focus definitely reduces any halos to a manageable level. In daytime bright sunlight, I wear sunglasses--but I always hated bright light in my eyes, long before my cataracts. (I could never sunbathe without completely covering my eyes with a thick towel.)
But we are all different. I had a lifetime of myopic vision, so dealing with blurriness doesn't bug me (it is like when I could only manage to get one contact in, or when I took my glasses off), and wearing glasses occasionally doesn't bug me (unlike some people who seem to despise glasses). Maybe I never in my life experienced perfect clarity, so my expectations were different. My vision now is much better than before.
steven64823 laurie30147
Edited
I think this is a good point, Laurie, and one I alluded to - perhaps one's satisfaction with their Vivity lense (and possibly any IOL?) stems from their lifelong vision and specificically prior to the surgery. If one comes from a life of poor to OK vision, maybe the Vivity is an improvement. But if one's pre surgery vision was OK to good (like me), and the compromises are not explained, disappointment in varying degrees can be the outcome.
aspen88 karin08666
Posted
hello karina. did you set your target to distance and how is your near and intermediate vision? what kinds of questions were you unable to find answers regarding eyhance? i am interested in getting that lens. thanks!
Guest steven64823
Posted
steven, I'm curious if the starburst (spikes of light extending out) were present from day 1 or if they developed over time? I have the same thing with Eyhance (spikes are in a pie shaped fan above lights, not all the way around, and they extend out like… 100 feet into the sky) but in my case it appeared 5 months later. I had no starburst at all for the first 5 months. I've been told it's PCO and that YAG (if and when I need it) might fix it.
aspen88 Guest
Posted
hi! do you see this at nighttime with headlights and is it intolerable that you cannot drive?
steven64823 Guest
Posted
Hi David. The glare, halos and spikes have been there since day one with my Vivity lenses. I'm currently nearing 10 months with them. I hear that most people develop a tolerance to the dysphotopsias in time, but unfortunately I don't seem to be one of those people
Guest aspen88
Edited
I see it will all point light sources at night. It's not TOO bad in the city where there is a lot of other ambient light around in general. It's pretty intense on a dark highway in the middle of the woods at night. Also it's only one eye (the other eye hasn't been done yet). It hasn't stopped me from driving at night and again it's not that bad in the city. It's not intolerable. I am a little worried though about what it will be like if the second eye ends up with the same phenomenon. And I'm hopeful that YAG (if and when that happens) might fix it.
.
I do suspect PCO because A) I've been told that's probably the cause and B) I had no starburts for the first 5 months.
.
I also have 2 small winkles in the bag which have been causing 2 maddox rods since day 1 but those never bothered me much. Maybe that's also part of the cause (and definitely fixable by YAG)
jo61855 riz1027
Edited
It's now three and four weeks after cataract surgery. I have Vivity Clareon lenses (21.0D in DE and 22.0D in NDE) . So far I am pleased with my vision in various situations. In two weeks, I will have a final post-op appointment. In the last check-up, my vision on the chart was 20/20. The target before surgery was 20/25. Driving is important to my independence, so I didn't want to sacrifice distance in order to maximize near vision. Only very small print (e.g.,tiny medicine bottles) requires use of readers. I was willing and able to pay for premium lenses, and my eyes were in good condition despite the cataracts. I do have allergies to many substances, and for that reason and many others, I postponed having surgery for perhaps a decade. It didn't make sense for me to delay any longer.
steven64823 riz1027
Edited
For those who like me have had issues with Vivity lenses, I'd like to add a word of encouragement - I've had a much better experience with IOL exchange to Rayner EMV lenses. No more massive night dysphotopsias, no more contrast loss in less than sunny light conditions. My vision is now clear, bright and crisp day or night.
Just to be clear, I'm not dissing the Vivty lense, as they clearly work well for some people. But the posts above indicate there are a number of people who, like me, are unsuited to the this lense. So if that's you, and you're still in the window for IOL exchange, please know there are solutions out there.