Experience with Twelve Cases of Intra-ocular Anterior Chamber Implants for Aphakia: Two New Models of Lenses Are Described.

UNIOCULAR aphakia is a condition of artificial anisometropia which very often causes great annoyance to the sufferer, who finds the aphakic eye of little use if the other eye is normal, and often complains of lack of binocular function and difficulty in judging distances, especially at close range. If contact lenses have been tried with unsatisfactoryresults, it seems justifiable especially in younger individuals, to alleviate the condition of uniocular aphakia by the insertion of an intra-ocular lens. The work of H. Ridley (1952, 1957) proved that it was possible for the eye to receive an intra-ocular lens with slight or no reaction. As the Ridley procedure entailed certain dangers, however, improvements have been effected by several successors including Arruga and Arruga (1953), Strampelli (1954), Bietti (1955), Barraquer Moner (1954), Schreck (1955), Apollonio (1956), Epstein (1957), and Lieb and Guerry (1957), using an anterior chamber lens. The simple rigid and uncomplicated construction of the Strampelli anterior chamber lens (Fig. 1) seemed to make this preferable to other types. In intracapsular lens extraction, the vitreous may prolapse through the pupil and if the vitreous touches the posterior surface of the cornea, the transparency of the latter will be damaged. An anterior chamber implant may therefore be of therapeutic value in preventing or curing this complication of FIG. 1 Strampelli intra-ocular hermiated vitreous. lens.