Presbyopia: Types of surgery to correct it

When the letter becomes blurred or when it costs us focus on near objects are two of the most frequent signs of presbyopia, a problem associated with age and that until relatively recently there was the possibility of correcting presbyopia with surgery.

The only effective treatment was to wear convex glasses. Today, we can resort several types of surgery if you do not want to wear glasses or contact lenses.

Can you correct presbyopia? Yes, through the LASIK techniques, the conductive keratoplasty or intraocular lenses. There are three surgical treatments to which patients may undergo presbyopia, a problem associated with age – usually occurs from 40-45 years, and which is characterized by the loss of the ability to focus the eye at a short distance. This causes to see blurry, it costs us to do nearby images with sharpness or we may need to move objects (eg when reading a book). Eye strain is one of its symptoms, which may be exacerbated by the lack of light or late in the day.

With the emergence of the first signs is recommended eye examination performed to confirm or exclude the diagnosis. If symptoms are confirmed, the use of glasses or contact lenses is usually the most common treatment for presbyopia. Convex lenses with a graduation which typically ranges between one and three dioptres, sufficient to correct the defect. When previously to presbyopia there is a problem of myopia is usually necessary to use two different glasses, one for close and others to far or opt for bifocal or progressive multifocal lenses.

But outgrew the contact lenses and glasses do not convince us as a solution, we can opt for the surgery. Let’s look more closely what is each one of the three types of surgery that we have previously pointed out:

Lasik Techniques: In this case, there are two ways of correcting the defect, monovision and multifocal. In the first case, the eye is focused on the far vision and the other in the distant. Over time the difference between the two is very slight. Meanwhile, with both eyes multifocality prepare to near and far.

Conductive Keratoplasty: IIn this case the treatment focuses on bending the cornea through a peripheral point of radio frequency, which provides near vision in interfering in the far.

Intraocular lenses: It is mostly used in cases of older patients (especially from the 70s). It is based on replacing the lens with a multifocal lens correction really good to see both far and near.

Presbyopia: Causes

Presbyopia affects the lens, intraocular lens located in the interior of the eye, just behind the pupil. Ligaments and muscles hold the lens smaller and increase or decrease its curvature when looking near or far objects. As we get older, there is a loss of elasticity and the lens becomes stiffer and has trouble focusing up close. That is when what is called presbyopia and to a greater or lesser extent, affects virtually the entire population as we get older.