The new Bausch and Lomb Akreos MICS lens, already on the market in other countries, is now available for U.S. cataract patients. The lens can be inserted through a tiny, 1.8mm incision, for better wound sealability, reduction in below-the-surface cell loss and reduction in surgery-caused astigmatism, according to the company. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services granted the New Technology Intraocular Lens designation to the lens for its design that reduces spherical aberration.

Staar Surgical Co expects a delay in approval from Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) for its Visian Toric ICL, its implantable lens to treat myopia and astigmatism. The PMDA has, however, not sought any more clinical trials for Visian Toric ICL. The company’s Visian ICL products are, however, on a “very quick path” to approval in the country. Visian ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens) is used to treat myopia or nearsightedness.

A study showed that posterior chamber phakic IOL implantation treated myopia and astigmatism in patients who underwent previous penetrating keratoplasty (PK). The prospective study included 15 eyes of 15 patients with a mean age of 37.8 years who underwent previous PK and were unable to wear spectacles or contact lenses or to undergo corneal refractive surgery.

People who wear contact lenses sometimes face the problem of their vision fluctuating during the day. The answer to this problem may lie in the design of their contact lens, according to a new clinical study published in Optometry and Vision Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The researchers indicates that their findings could be of particular relevance to people who wear soft toric contact lenses for the treatment of astigmatism, a common vision condition in which surfaces of the eye, including the cornea, have an oval shape.