Composite intraocular lens

Abstract

A one-piece bicomposite intraocular lens having a soft foldable central optic portion and a hard, stiff haptic portion made from two dissimilar polymeric materials wherein the soft polymeric material is soft enough to fold into a smaller dimension for insertion through a surgical incision which is smaller than the diameter of the optic portion and the second hard polymeric haptic material provides a stiffness sufficient to properly hold the intraocular lens in place within a patient's eye. The hard polymeric haptic material is joined to the outermost peripheral surface of the soft central optic material by means of an interpenetrating polymer network to form a one-piece bicomposite intraocular lens, In an alternative embodiment the stiff haptic portion has a further soft material at its terminus to protect the eye tissues at the point of contact without sacrificing the lens positioning properties of stiff haptics.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.