My Panoptix experience: both eyes, high myopia and high astigmatism
Posted , 7 users are following.
I posted this on another thread but I don't think many people saw it as it was way down the thread. I've had a positive experience and would like to counter the mostly negative posts that are common in any discussion forum (since people that are unhappy are much more likely to want to talk about their experience).
My vision before surgery was -11 with 4.5 astigmatism in the left eye and -13 with 2.5 astigmatism in the right eye. My right eye was/is my dominant eye. I had the left eye done first on September 1. I had the right eye done on September 17. I chose the Panoptix toric trifocal lenses. After the first surgery I had very good vision in my left eye so I went without glasses for 2 1/2 weeks before I had the right eye done. That was not ideal as my right eye was a -13 so of course it was totally blurry but my brain was able to compensate and I could do everything. I'm a teacher so that includes reading, on the computer, driving, etc. Because the other eye was uncorrected it was hard for me to tell how good my vision was. I could close my right eye and see that my left was good, but it wasn't perfect. I saw a kind of ghost outline around print on the computer. After 2 1/2 weeks I had the second eye done, also a Panoptix toric lens. I never considered any other option as my understanding is that these lenses work best with the Panoptix in both eyes so the eyes support each other. I just finished my last exam (vision and dilated to look at retina) on October 13 and finished my drops in right eye on October15. So I'm all done with my surgery! My outcome has been great! My two eyes definitely support each other as my vision is much better with both eyes than it is with either eye separately. I don't need glasses anymore for anything. I can read, watch TV, get on computer or Ipad, drive, garden, anything with no need for glasses. I don't see perfect--last test put me at about 20/25. However, I see better than I did with my expensive progressive lens glasses made from expensive high-index composite materials. I do see pretty big halos around headlights and streetlights at night. Can I drive? Yes. Is it an issue? A little. I don't drive at night very often, and even when I am out at night it's usually with my wife, so she can drive. But I have driven alone at night and it wasn't a big deal. My understanding is that most people learn to neurally adapt to this and it takes from 4 to 6 months. But I'm OK with what it's like now. So put me down as a success story as I went from being totally dependent on glasses to completely glasses free and I love my new vision!
6 likes, 5 replies
vasily48550 JoeSemo
Posted
Hi, thanks for sharing your experience. I am especially interested in it because I have cataract on one eye only, and the other is -9. I was wondering if you tried wearing contact lenses on the unoperated eye after the first surgery. My doctor says that you should be able to see comfortable with both eyes in this case.
mary27273 vasily48550
Posted
i wore a contact lens on operated eye for two weeks. Myopic contact lens script from -5 to -550. I was able to function and used readers low script to balance out vision I did see comfortably My unoperated eye did worsen very quickly within those two weeks but i was still able to see well.
Beth-R JoeSemo
Posted
Joe,
I am happy to hear of your success with the PanOptix Toric IOL. I just had my first one put in yesterday and I am already seeing 20/20 in that eye! My other eye isn't very bad and I am typing on my computer tonight without any glasses. I can even read fine print (my non-operated eye usually needs reading glasses). Of course, I haven't driven at night yet, but I've always hated the bright headlights, so any halo or radiant effects probably won't bother me much. I looked at a spotlight on the ground from the 2nd floor tonight and saw clear radiant light around it from my PanOptix eye. My other eye has a cataract just starting and the light was more hazy. I understand after about six months some people stop noticing the effects of bright lights when driving. I, too, don't drive a lot at night.
PanOptix are expensive, but it sure beats having to update the lenses in my glasses each year (I have four sets of glasses!) Now I only need my sunglasses... yaaaay!
adam71110 JoeSemo
Posted
I had my R eye done two weeks ago, and the L eye one week ago.
I am 49, healthy and love to trail run and mountain bike and like most of us spend a lot of time in front of a computer for work.
The Good:
The Downsides:
Still some residual astigmatism in the R eye, minor buy annoying and most noticable from a single LED light in the distance at night. Astigmatism correction (Toric lense) comes in discrete step, and the small residual correction will be done by PRK in a month or so after the eyes are completely healed.
For intermediate and near vision (computer screens and reading), white words on black have a glowing blurry halo behind them, and black on white there is a gray glow around all the words. Increasing screen brightness helps. The Opthamologist describes this as a 'loss of contrast'. Makes low light reading hard. Reading glasses do make words crisp, but I find the slight blurring and loss of contrast much less annoying than reading glasses. Turning of the brightness on screens largely solves this
Brights lights have multiple concentric rings around them, particularly noticable at night. I observed that is in part due to the size of the pupil opening being larger at night. Larger pupil means more concentric rings, and a smaller pupil is less. The number of rings/size of rings is curiously dependent on the brightness of the light. A very bright light at a distance has many rings making it appear huge. A dim light has very few or no rings. For driving, this throws up a perception of distance, as size of lights are now proportional to brightness rather than distance. The brain is adjusting well and I can drive at night just fine, though I do miss the crispness of night driving that I had before surgery.
All in all, tolerable so far, and I find my brain adjusting quickly to the new optics. Biggest complaint is at night the concentric rings around bright lights.
RonAKA adam71110
Posted
The other option for reducing residual astigmatism if it is less than 1.0 D is manual LRI. It may depend on the surgeon's experience, but some claim they can get below 0.25 D. See this article.
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Review of Ophthalmology PUBLISHED 9 FEBRUARY 2018 Is There Still a Place For Manual LRIs?