Word: lensed
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Lens implants bring better vision to cataract patients
Charles de Gaulle wore them. So did Impressionist Claude Monet and myriad others. Their glasses, as thick as Coke-bottle bottoms, were and still generally are the unmistakable emblem of millions of people who have undergone surgery for removal of cataracts-clouded lenses of the eyes. Of the 400,000 patients who had such operations last year, the majority were 65 or older. Most now wear the distinctive-and somewhat unflattering-spectacles. But more than 50,000 of them have no need for special glasses; they have undergone a controversial new procedure-the implanting in the eye of a tiny...
This is welcome news for the aged, for whom cataract removal is one of the most common operations, and one of the most ancient. Cataracts can, of course, form at any stage in life as a result of injury, inflammation or disease, and may even be present at birth. But...
...advanced cases, the patient is left nearly blind. As Hollywood Screenwriter Leonard Spigelgass, 68, who has had two lenses implanted, recalls: "Your lenses turn into agate, and you're forced to look through stone." Removing these shadowed lenses allows light to enter the eye but creates another problem. The lens of the normal eye focuses the light rays; without it, vision becomes hopelessly blurred. Under such circumstances, the patient has only a few options: thick glasses, contact lenses or the artificial lens implant. The special spectacles restore vision to normal levels but, in the process, magnify images...
...lens implant provides vision almost matching that of the natural lens without these troubling side effects. Moreover, the plastic lenses, available in a variety of designs and optical powers, can be chosen before implantation to correct other vision problems, including near-and farsightedness. By picking the correct power of the implant lens, New York Medical College Ophthalmologist Miles Galin, who has done more than 2,000 implants, is often able to reassure patients before surgery: 'You'll probably see better without glasses than you did before the cataract developed...