Has Any One Else Noticed this Unusual Vision Issue with Symfony Lens

Just had a YAG laser treatment done in one eye with the other to follow....  Wish I could tell you it helps....  But it didn't.  Also tried the inside lights in the car, but that didn't help either....  Just something we'll have to get used to....  :-(

Sorry to learn that you also have the night vision issues of the glare and the multiple concentric circles due to Symfony lenses. Agree that the studies performed for Abbott ignoring these had been more independent and honest, and not just sales pitches for the Symfony lens. Hopefully, thanks to this forum, more people are aware of these potential issues before making their decision.

Hopefully, at least your day time vision is better after treating the PCO with the YAG laser. Also, I would have expected the glare to a be a little bit less, although that may have accentuated your seeing the concentric circles.

Not much difference either way....  But yes my daytime vision and computer vision are excellent.  Still have some floaters from the Laser, which is not abnormal.  They should clear in time.

 

Am glad that your distance vision is a little bit better after getting rid of the PCO (Posterior Capsule Opaqueness) with the YAG procedure.

It is too bad though that you still need to use prescription glasses for distance driving and that the night vision is still bad. The distance driving without glasses can be improved with LASIK on one of the eyes (that was part of my package), but unfortunately that does not stop one from seeing the multiple concentric circles around lights at night.

Hi Jo05253

most of us with cataracts had no choice about lens implants replacing our natural lenses unless we eventually preferred going blind.   I don’t recommend this surgery to anyone to get rid of their removable contact lenses or glasses.  This surgery should only be undertaken in my opinion for those with cataracts that are no longer able to drive safely.  Unfortunately many doctors to increase their profits are encouraging clear lens exchange which involves same procedure as cataract surgery where a person’s natural lens is removed.  People need to be informed more of the complications, risks and side affects of such a procedure.  All of us with cataracts see a vast improvement in vision compared to our sight with cataracts.  Someone who has no cataracts will not see as well and open themselves to unnecessary risks, complications due to surgery and visual artifacts.

I think that making the people more aware of the night vision issues (such as seeing multiple circles around lights at night) with the Symfony lens was one of the main purposes for my original post. Everything, I had read before my cataract surgery on the web, from the manufacturer, published studies etc, proclaimed how wonderful the Symfony lens is and no one would have to deal with using glasses to deal with presbyopia by using reading glasses etc, while pretending that the halos and glare of the Symfony lens were as low as those for the monofocal lens. Any way, from the experiences of many of the people on this site, now we know better. (although many surgeons still seem to try to oversell some of the premium lenses, including Symfony).

I think that the bottom line is the Symfony lens is overall a good choice for achieving good day time vision in the far-to-intermediate distance range or the intermediate-to-near distance range, 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.

One final comment. I still see the multiple circles around lights at night as vividly as I did one year back. I am amazed (and may be, I should not be) that the surgeons continue to tell the patients with any type of night vision issue such as glare, halos, multiple circles around lights, edge reflections etc that they will stop seeing these things in a few months. Yes. All of learn how to deal with and live with not-so-pleasant things in life, but that does not necessarily mean that the not-so-pleasant things are not there any more.

I don’t anticipate the concentric circles going away.  Perhaps because there is no $ incentive for Canadian opthamologists they are a little more honest about the halos.  I know my surgeon mentioned them.  

Glad the starbursts and glare subsided - was having a hard time with driving at night with those.  Also glad surgery was August as now that it is November I am driving home in the dark from work.  Very short days now.  I have an appointment with optometrist next week so will be interested in where my vision is.

They continue to do this because here in the US because they make significanty more money inserting the Premium Lenses than they do with the standard lenses.....  It's that simple.

I read everything prior to surgery and even found the technis  vision simulater  ... I know halos are there but my brain lets me just see the cars for some reason. Patient selection by Dr is very important. They are learning personality types who cannot tolerate the night vision. And steering them to monofocals

Actually, without knowing your actual vision quality, I can't relate to your case, but my guess is that if one has better contrast sensitivity (generally a good thing), one will tend to see the multiple circles more.

i have 20/20 vision with the symfony.I had the yag as i had odd streaks at night .The streaks were caused by wrinkles in the back capsule and disappeared with the yag...i see mild halos if i look for them but am so pleased with my overall clarity i accept the downside..There were worse distortions at night from cataracts.I would have disliked  any lens which would restrict my focus to set distance..symfony goes from close-ish to infinity which i love.In bright light reading is best

i doubt my surgeon would want complaining patients to earn more money by giving them a bad result.Rather he wants patients to do their tesearch to find what sort of vision they want..

They should license the Symfony lens design to a contact lens manufacturer to produce contact lenses that offer the same extended range of focus as the Symfony IOL.  That would be great for those who want that vision and don't have a cataract, as well as a way to simulate the vision of a Symfony IOL before the final decision - a way to test drive it!  Could also offer a way for those who only need one eye cataract surgery to get similar vision in the other eye if a Symfony IOL is chosen.

Yes. Having an extended vision lens will be good for checking out the Symfony IOL, but it may not be a fair test when one has a cataract.

In their younger days, most contact lens users seem to adjust fine to monovision. So, the market for the extended vision contact lens may not be as big as one may think, specially when considering the potential night vision issues with such a contact lens.

There seems to be a market for bifocal/multifocal contact lenses however.

Do the multifocal contacts also cause night vision artifacts like halos, starbursts, etc due to the dual focus optics in the lens?

I can't speak for the others, but I tried one multifocal Contact lens design about 25 years ago in both eyes. The vision was blurry. So I switched back to the monovision set after trying the multifocal lenses for about 2-3 days.

Well said!

 I have had my Symfony Lens in just a year now,  and there are days when I know I need the eye drops,  and drink more water.   Over all it is behind me now and I will not complain.  There is enough information out there letting folks know the good, bad, and ugly.  For the first three months,  I had several adjustments mostly on my left eye, which I wrote about here, in earlier posts.  Bright light is tough,  I forget to have sunglasses handy,  but I really like not having glasses sliding down my face and scratches in the lens.  I was not careful with my glasses and was always needing to wipe them clean.

Night vision isn’t horrible,  but the newer bright car lights can be a challenge, so I look to the far right edge of the road and concentrate more than I ever used to.  I just don’t drive at night that much anymore.   I can honestly say that if your work involves night time travel...  I would not reccommend this surgery.  I would then choose the glasses.

But I am retired and don’t have to drive much.  I love to be outside in my garden in the summer,  and not having to deal with glasses sliding down my face has been worth the sacrifice’s in the other areas.