Eye Care Here's Looking at You What's New A surgically implantable lens just approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers moderate to severely nearsighted adults who are not candidates for Lasik surgery another option besides glasses or contacts. The intraocular Verisyse lens is designed for those whose vision is between -5 and -20 diopters. (That's about 20/400 to 20/10,000 vision; at -5, patients are "possibly not even seeing the big E" on an eye chart, said Jeffrey L. Weaver of the American Optometric Association.) Unlike replacements for cataract-clouded lenses, the new devices are implanted in front of the natural lens, leaving it and the cornea intact. "It opens up the possibility of vision correction for patients who can't have other types of procedures done," said Jay Lustbader, ophthalmology professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
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