Recreating the Posterior Chamber Lens

T he history of IOLs began in 1949 with Sir Harold Ridley’s insertion of an artificial lens into the posterior chamber. Although placing an IOL within the space from which the cataract had been removed seemed (and seems still) a natural, almost obvious choice, ophthalmologists abandoned posterior chamber lens implantation within a few years. I reawakened surgeons’ interest in posterior chamber IOLs by integrating the concept of compressibility into posterior chamber lens design. An open-looped, compressible, posterior chamber IOL became the first commercially successful, FDA-approved, posterior chamber lens (the Shearing 101 lens; IOLAB Corporation). To this day, the open-looped configuration is a mainstay of posterior chamber lens design. This article describes the genesis of my idea.