Unilateral IOL replacement with naturally healthy second eye.
Posted , 7 users are following.
I have developed a cataract in my left eye due to blunt trauma.
my doctor recommends a symfony edof in that eye.
My right eye is completely fine and healthy. i never had to wear wear glasses(need them for the left eye after injury)
anyone have the experience with symfony in one eye and completely fine natural second eye?
is it a good choice? or should i stick to aspheric monofocals.
i would like to keep playing football(soccer) and need to be spectacle free for that Don't mind wearing glasses for reading.
also if anyone would like to share their experience with monofocals. what all tasks they can perform comfortably without glasses. I am 27 now.
0 likes, 25 replies
Guest Gaurav18
Posted
Hi
This site does not permit links, but if you search youtube "Dr. Shannon Wong's Symfony Lens Experience! The doctor is the patient"
You will see an eye surgeon that choose to get the Symfony in his dominant eye, and does not do anything to the second eye, although because of presbyopia.
He ends up with the combination you are facing, with one Symfony and one eye with natural lens.
I guess, if an eye surgeon does this to himself, it should be a very safe approach.
Cheers
Christian
Gaurav18 Guest
Posted
hello,
i have seen those vlogs of him. very confidence instilling. i tried to find his long term (6 months) post-op video but didn't find any. just one of two week post-op. but still it was great and most honest insight.
thanks Danish.
soks Gaurav18
Posted
i am currently in that combination. i am 43 years old. at 27 you are at risk of positive dysphotopsia where your pupil will dilate beyond the IOL causing you to see the lens edge glare. i do have that symptom. depending on the physiology of the eye you may or may not get near vision. at 27 the loss of accommodation of near vision will be quite a shock. i would suggest you target -0.5 instead of plano to get a little bit more near vision. shannon wong has also done that but he is 50 years old so less prone to some of the side effects. also younger patients are more prone to PCO than older patients which then requires YaG which then puts younger males at risk of retina detachment. sorry for all the doom and gloom and sorry you have to go through this. your healthy eye will hopefully help reduce artifacts if any from the cataract eye. symfony will give you good intermediate and far. vision in darker environments will not be as good as the natural eye. lights at night will have halos but healthy eye will suppress them.
Gaurav18 soks
Posted
I did not mention that i also suffer from traumatic mydriasis. to be honest i did not knew about getting a +ve dyphotopsia but that seems very likely now.
doctor also told me about chances of PCO and subsequent measures but thats is outta our hands.
i have been living with this eye condition from last 9 months. the good eye is helping me with all my tasks and i thank god everytime i realise that we have two eyes.
I am just hoping for the best and the only real challenge for me is the choice of lens.
very afraid of making the only choice i have.
how do you feel about the lens and how is your experience so far?
soks Gaurav18
Posted
you could get positive dysphotopsia with monofocal too. whether it is more bothersome with symfony ..that i cannot tell. also you may want to ask MULTIPLE people including people with symfony in one eye and monofocal in another eye how their experience is.
my surgeon told me that monfocal would be blurry vision for 4 feet. thats what put me towards symfony. with symfony i have ended up with 2 to 2.5ft .
you may do well with symfony. if you have access to zeiss in europe or asia or australia you could get the lisa or lara lenses too.
Gaurav18 soks
Posted
I am going in tomorrow for preliminary tests. maybe after that the doctor would give a more clear view upon uncorrected VA expectations. i ll also discuss about the possibilty of +ve dysphotopsia. especially with the mydriasis.
i live in india. its hard to find responsive patients around here. such experimentations are rare here. and finding such people for a valuable talk is even rarer. This forum is really awesome. thanks to all of you who take out their precious time and provide with an insight.
ann39244 Gaurav18
Posted
I am having the first of my two Symfony EDOFs removed tomorrow. I'm 67 and have positive dysphotopsia that I cannot live with including really huge starbursts, glare, ghosting, halos, night and day. I didn't think I'd be one of the supposed few who would experience these extreme side-effects, but I am.
Gaurav18 ann39244
Posted
and i am getting my eye measured and examined for calculations and final decision tomorrow.
i am feeling really bad learning situation, wish you all the strength and luck for the procedure.
after what Soks just told me and your testimonial i feel more inclined towards monofocals instead. haah!
Deb03 Gaurav18
Posted
Whenever I hear someone doesn't mind wearing glasses, I wonder if monofocals would be a better choice. I think that people who really want to be free of glasses may be more willing to put up with the artifacts associated with premium lenses. I was one who went into the surgery not minding glasses and not wanting more risk of visual artifacts so I chose the monofocal lenses. However, I was surprised at how much I would need glasses. I initially bought over-the-counter readers, but quickly went with a prescription for office progressive lenses. I found I was constantly taking the readers on and off, and also I needed different magnifications for my computer and my phone. I guess my advice to people who say that they don't mind glasses would be to be sure they don't mind having the dependence on glasses to see. Not sure if that makes sense or not. It's not a matter of just being fine with how you look in glasses, but being okay with needing them to function. Although my preference was monofocals, many people get premium lenses and are quite happy with them. It really is a personal choice. If I knew how to play soccer 😃, I could do it just fine with my monofocal IOLs, but if I wanted to look at my fitness watch during the game, it would be blurry. You have one good eye though, so that will help with whatever lens you choose. Good luck!
soks Deb03
Posted
Deb03 is spot on correct. even with SYMFONY i use +2.5 for close to face HD video viewing. and +1.25 for book or computer reading.
ann39244 Deb03
Posted
Put very simply, before the Symfonys were put in, I knew I would need glasses to thread a needle. I prepared for that. After my Symfonys are removed, I was told I will need glasses to thread a needle, and most likely during computer use. I question what I was striving for with the Symfonys, which have more potential for side effects along with the need for glasses, or just using the monofocal lens knowing I will need glasses too.
Gaurav18 Deb03
Posted
it completely made sense. i can relate with what you are saying. i have been dependent on glasses since the day of my injury. and the shift has been rapid. i have developed a habit of wearing them because the trauma partially dislocated my natural lens slightly which led to lenticular astigmatism.
compared to that if i only have to wear glasses for reading, television, computer and mobile etc then its fine.
my experience of vision problems only began after this injury. an astigmatic eye causes nuisance at all distances. i have no perception of how people see with only spherical refractive errors. assuming that the surgery will leave no residual astigmatism i was wondering if soccer would be a problem with monofocal iols as they say it can give excellent far vision. its part of my job so it concerns me. therefore i thought if people can drive without glasses while on monofocals then maybe its practically possible to engage in a game like soccer where the ball is big enough.
i am having my fingers crossed until the end of this episode.
Deb03 Gaurav18
Posted
I have no problem seeing a soccer ball at any distance. I wouldn't be able to read small print on it though. Do you play soccer at night? Most people agree that your best night vision would occur with a monofocal lens. I had laser cataract surgery. Left eye is plano (20/20) with no astigmatism. Right eye has .5 diopter oblique astigmatism. I see about 20/30 in that eye without glasses. My far vision is excellent. I think it's safe to say from about 6 feet on, your vision should be clear. Once it starts getting closer in, it will vary with the individual how much they can see without glasses. Some eyes are better with accommodation. My father has monofocals and can still read his phone (although better with glasses). I can't. Will your doctor be using a laser?
Gaurav18 Deb03
Posted
no! it will be micro phaco as far as i know.
yes sometimes i do need to work into late evenings under the lights
Guest Gaurav18
Posted
We all have the same worries about lens choice I think, and some are happy with their choice after surgery, some are not, but most are happy no matter what lens they choose.
To me this forum have been priceless.
On Wednesday I will have the Zeiss AT Lara (similar to Symfony) in my dominant eye, 5 weeks after that I will have my other eye done, at that time I will decide if it is going to be another Lara or a Lisa Trifocal, I doubt that I would go for a monofocal even with visual side effects from the Lara, but maybe I will get wiser, we will see.
I am born with cataracts, and I really doubt that the side effects can be worse than what I have lived with for 45 years, so side effects really does not scare me, I am more scared of not being able to see simple things without glasses, like the speedometer on my motorcycle for instance. Not that I see the speedometer that well now, but I would like to after surgery 😃
And I know that some who gets the monofocal lenses get a big chok from how little they actually see near and midrange, there are surely people that regrets the monofocals as well.
Statistically approx. 1 out 200 are having their IOL lens explanted and shifted with another type, and the amount of monofocal and multifocal explants are roughly the same, according to surgeons here in Denmark.
On the other hand I know a guy, who has monofocal lenses and monovision, he has actually decent vision both far and midrange, for him it works great.
I am sure the Zeiss lenses must be available in India as well as the Tecnis Symfony, Ziess are widely used on the Asian marked as well.
The Zeiss AT Lara is a slightly newer lens than the Symfony, although they are probably quite similar in performance.
Deb03 Guest
Posted
Christian - Thank you for all of your excellent input. I hope you will update everyone on your results. This forum was very helpful to me up front - and still is.
Gaurav - If you watched Dr. Shannon Wong's 2 week post-op Symfony video, his simulation of how he sees with his natural left eye is a great example of how you would see with a monofocal IOL. He has lost accommodation and sees great distance, but not close up.
Gaurav18 Guest
Posted
hello Danish! wish you all the very best. your procedure would give you excellent results. i am sure of that. i am excited for you too.
W-H Guest
Posted
Danish wish you all the best!!!!! You have been thorough a lot, you deserve a good outcome.
W-H Gaurav18
Posted
Gaurav what kind of trauma caused formation of cataract? Did you get hit by a football or something?
Gaurav18 Deb03
Posted
yes! but the range of far vision he demonstrated with paper cuttings was so narrow.
even my grandpa had monofocals and used to use glasses only for paperwork. it really differs a lot from person to person. my surgeon is quite good and it all depends upon his skill i guess.
going in today for the final verdict.
Gaurav18 W-H
Posted
badminton shuttle!
W-H Gaurav18
Posted
Wow! Amazing a shuttlecock can do that much damage. How long after the hit did cataract develop?
What did you decide then?
Deb03 Gaurav18
Posted
The range of crisp vision with a monofocal is narrow. Which is why people elect to get premium lenses. You can still see though. It's detail tasks within a few feet that you need glasses for, like reading. I have found that I need to read more than I thought though. Examples from today - clothes shopping in the mall - needed my glasses to read the labels. Grocery shopping - needed glasses to read expiration dates. Having said that, I still don't regret my choice, because I wanted the best vision even with glasses. I'm just finding that, in many cases, wearing progressive lenses is more convenient than taking glasses on and off. I'm going to try mini-monovision with a contact lens at some point. Wondering/hoping that I could get by with small amounts of reading - like at my errands today. I should add at the gym today, I didn't wear glasses at all. I can read the treadmill display and numbers on the weights because the text is big enough.
soks Deb03
Posted
is the car dashboard crystal clear?
Deb03 soks
Posted
No. I can read it because the letters/numbers are bigger. I can't read the text on the steering wheel because it is smaller and closer. Currently I wear no correction when driving. I did buy some bifocal Maui Jims which are great for when I'm outdoors and want to read my phone. I don't like them for driving though. The break interferes with my sight of the dash.