Device for use in eye surgery
AssigneeAMO Groningen B.V.
InventorsThomas Terwee, Steven Koopmans
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sealing device for use inside a capsular bag after the natural lens has been removed has a plug part adapted to seal a rhexis in a capsular bag, thus preventing displacement through the rhexis of a lens-forming liquid material injected through the rhexis and adapted to replace the natural lens and form an intraocular lens implant. The plug part has a slightly larger area than the capsulorhexis and is made of a deformable polymer. The sealing device further has a removable adjuster connected to the plug part, the adjuster protruding anteriorly from an outer surface of the plug part and being capable of positioning the plug part to a desired location.
Claims17
A method of performing visual correction in a patient by replacing a natural lens with a lens implant, comprising:
- excising an area of an anterior capsular bag of an eye having a sufficient size to surgically remove the natural lens;
- locating a sealing device comprising a flexible plug part of a size sufficient to cover said excised area and a removable adjuster, with said adjuster to a position where a peripheral anterior surface of said plug part contacts an inner wall of the capsular bag so as to sufficiently cover said excised area, without additional sealing and without the sealing device contacting an outer wall of the capsular bag;
- delivering a lens forming material into the capsular bag by using a deliverer to temporarily displace and/or deform said plug part to admit passage of said material into the capsular bag;
- and
- before removing the deliverer, introducing lens forming material into the capsular bag to an extent that said material exerts a sufficient pressure on a posterior side of the plug part to seal the excised area without additional sealing, so said lens material is prevented from being displaced from the capsular bag.
A method of obtaining visual correction subsequent to surgically removing a natural lens, comprising the steps of:
- inserting a plug part of a sealing device through a capsulorhexis, said plug part being adapted to cover and seal the capsulorhexis from inside of a capsular bag without additional sealing;
- adjusting the location of said plug part with an adjuster operable from the outside of the capsular bag to cover the capsulorhexis with the plug part from the inside of the capsular bag, without the sealing device contacting an outer wall of the capsular bag;
- delivering a lens forming material through the capsulorhexis into the capsular bag by using a deliverer and by displacing and/or deforming the plug part to admit the material;
- and
- removing the deliverer from the eye, wherein pressure within the bag retains the plug part in a sealing position without additional sealing, thereby preventing displacement of the lens forming liquid material from the capsular bag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.