Posted , 5 users are following.
my surgeon thinks I should have surgery earlier rather than later to minimise traumato the capsule and has suggested having a TECNIS Symfony Extended Range of vision intraocular lens, has anyone had experience of this with this eye condition (Fuchs’s endothelial dystrophy) ?
0 likes, 16 replies
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soks Katiewarrington
Posted
How old are you? Are both eyes affected? If there is a risk of damage to the capsule then the phacoemusification should be done at 0 speed if they use phacoemulsification.
I am leaning towards Symfony myself. Only thing holding me back are the night time issues with Symfony (Concentric circles around lights and low contrast vision in dim light). I am 41 and losing lens accommodation is a bit unsettling.
Sue.An Katiewarrington
Posted
From what I read online there is no treatment and there was this precaution :
If you have been diagnosed with Fuchs' corneal dystrophy, be sure to discuss this with your eye doctor if you are considering LASIK or other refractive surgery or if you have cataracts and need cataract surgery. These eye surgeries can worsen the condition, and corneal dystrophy often is considered a contraindication for elective refractive surgery
Sue.An Katiewarrington
Posted
at201 Katiewarrington
Posted
Sorry to learn that you have an eye condition (Fuchs’s endothelial dystrophy) which is requiring you to have a cataract surgery at a young age. Unfortunately, I don't know much about this eye condition to offer you any tips on dealing with it.
However, while Symfony lens is a good lens, please make sure that you are aware of the pros as well as the cons of this lens (I have had a Symfony lens for the last 1 year). You will find posts by many people talking about these pros and cons. The bottom line is that the Symfony lens is overall a good choice for achieving good day time vision in the far-to-intermediate distance range (but not near) or the intermediate-to-near distance range (but not far), which will be a better range than that provided by a monofocal lens. However, the night vision can be expected to be worse than that of a monofocal lens, because the designed-in diffraction circles in the Symfony lens also cause the multiple circles around lights at night at 50-200 yards distance, which can be very distracting and annoying. The night glare because of lights can happen with any lens because the sharpness (or lack thereof) of focus can be a significant factor in that.
Katiewarrington
Posted
Sue.An Katiewarrington
Posted
Private clinics will do almost anything as the total cost is absorbed by the patient. NHS the costs of cataract surgery is absorbed by the gov’t and there is little to no expense passed on to the patient. NHS will only do monofocal lenses for cataract surgery.
Given the added complications due to your eye condition if I were in your shoes I would seek out a cornea specialist. I am not very familiar with your eye condition but from the little I could find online it seems lasik, PRK, CLE as well as cataract surgery could potential make the condition worse.
at201 Katiewarrington
Posted
I am not sure why my earlier message is being held up to be moderated, but the gist of that was that I am sorry that you have a terrible eye condition and that I am not much familiar with this condition and thus can't give you any helpful hints to deal with it.
Based on my personal experience with the Symfony lens (as well as on posts by other Symfonu users), my main advice is that you should make sure that you know not only the advantages of the Symfony Extended Vision lens over a monofocal lens, but also its relative disadvantages before you make an informed choice. The Symfony lens provides about 1D more range than a monofocal lens so that it is, for example, also good for intermediate distance when the best focus is set for far distance. However, it may not be good enough to read at 16 inches or so. The main disadvantage of the Symfony lens is the higher night vision issues (such as seeing multiple circles around lights, glare etc). This subject has been discussed a lot on this forum and I won't repeat all that here.
at201
Posted
Katiewarrington,
I am sure that you don't need any more scary thoughts. But, based on a article on John Hopkins web site, you may also want to consult a retina specialist before making a decision regarding your cataract surgery. To quote some of the words from the article:
"Some people with cataracts also have Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD). If a Fuchs patient undergoes cataract surgery, the fragile endothelial cells of the cornea may be damaged. (The endothelial cells are those cells at the very back of the cornea. The endothelial cells deteriorate in patients with FECD.) The loss of too many of these cells can lead to edema (swelling) of the cornea. This edema can then sometimes lead to painful corneal bullae (blisters), deterioration of vision, and eventually, the need for a corneal transplant.
In summary, in a patient with FECD, a cataract surgery may hasten the need for a corneal transplant. Because of this risk, the corneas of FECD patients are examined carefully before cataract surgery. Sometimes, the eye doctor will decide that the patient should have both cataract surgery and a corneal transplant at the same time. By doing this, two separate surgeries are combined into one procedure, and recovery time is greatly reduced."