A new lens implant now ensures that cataract sufferers undergoing surgery can leave the operating room with good near, intermediate and distance vision.

"In the past, the lens implants used during cataract surgery could only provide distance vision. Patients thus continued to have problems with their near vision and were forced to depend on reading glasses to see things up close," said Dr. Bala Ambati, Director of the MCG Cornea Service. "We recently performed our first ReSTOR intraocular lens implant for a cataract patient, resulting in 20/20 vision for both near and distance."

Approved in April 2005 by the FDA, the ReSTOR intraocular lens is a biconvex (convex on both sides) lens that is shaped using apodized diffraction. This process allows optimal management of light into the eye for increased depth of focus.

A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that develops with age. It blocks light from entering the retina, causing blurry vision. Cataract surgery to remove the aging lens and replace it with a lens implant first began in the 1980s.

Presbyopia, or the inability to see objects up close, can also develop during aging. The ReSTOR lens may also be used to treat presbyopia.

"This new tool allows us to return cataract sufferers and others to excellent distance and near vision, similar to when they were in their 20s and 30s," said Dr. Ambati. "It is a great advancement in eye surgery."

MCG Health System is composed of three separate organizations -- MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the members of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation. The physicians of MCG Health System are community physicians, faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia, or employees of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation, not employees of MCG Health, Inc. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, the MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by providing an environment for faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation and community physicians to deliver the highest level of primary and specialty health care. For more information, please visit www.MCGHealth.org.