Purpose: To assess the safety and efficacy of the Implantable Contact Lens (ICL) to treat moderate to high myopia.
Design: Prospective nonrandomized clinical trial.
Participants: Five hundred twenty-three eyes of 291 patients with between 3 and 20.0 diopters (D) of myopia participating in the U. S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trial of the ICL for myopia.
Intervention: Implantation of the ICL.
Main outcome measures: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), refraction, best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), adverse events, operative and postoperative complications, lens opacity analysis (Lens Opacity Classification System III), subjective satisfaction, and symptoms.
Results: Twelve months postoperatively, 60.1% of patients had a visual acuity of 20/20 or better, and 92.5% had an uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better. Patients averaged a 10.31-line improvement in UCVA, 61.6% of patients were within 0.5 D, and 84.7% were within 1.0 D of predicted refraction. Only one case (0.2%) lost > 2 lines of BSCVA. Gains of 2 or more lines of BSCVA occurred in 55 cases (11.8%) at 6 months and 41 cases (9.6%) at 1 year after ICL surgery. Early and largely asymptomatic, presumably surgically induced anterior subcapsular (AS) opacities were seen in 11 cases (2.1%); an additional early AS opacity (0.2%) was seen because of inadvertent anterior chamber irrigation of preservative-containing solution at surgery. Two (0.4%) late (> or = 1 year postoperatively) AS opacities were observed. Two (0.4%) ICL removals with cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation have been performed. Patient satisfaction (very/extremely satisfied) was reported by 92.4% of subjects on the subjective questionnaire; only four patients (1.0%) reported dissatisfaction. Slightly more patients reported an improvement at 1 year over baseline values for the following subjective symptoms: quality of vision, glare, double vision, and night driving difficulties. Only a 3% difference between pre-ICL and post-ICL surgery was reported for haloes.
Conclusions: The results support the safety, efficacy, and predictability of ICL implantation to treat moderate to high myopia.