Commonly referred to as “blurry near vision,” presbyopia is an eye condition experienced by many adults as they near age 40. While reading glasses typically provide relief from presbyopia, they can be an unattractive option to many patients. For older adults who don’t care for the appearance of reading glasses or the need to repeatedly put them on and take them off, an innovative new laser therapy may offer an alternative treatment option.
At the 120th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in October 2016, researchers from the Refractive and Cornea Foundation in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, unveiled a technique known as the PrEsbyopic Allogenic Refractive Lenticule, or PEARL. During the procedure, an ophthalmic surgeon uses a femtosecond laser to make a small incision in the corneal tissue through which the patient may then extract a small corneal tissue disc known as a lenticule. In this way, surgeons can reshape a patient’s cornea to repair near vision using the patients’ own tissue and without compromising their distance vision.
PEARL bears similarities to existing treatments used to correct farsightedness and offers an alternative to the option of corneal inlays. While these small implantable optical devices can improve reading vision, in many cases patients’ eyes reject them. In contrast, the use of a patient’s own corneal tissue to correct vision limits the chance of inflammation and also promotes oxygen and nutrient flow.
