Monovision Cataract Surgery for Near Vision

Question: I have had Cataract Surgery in my right eye for distance and love it. However I am having my left eye implanted with a reading lens or monovision Cataract Surgery. My question is do most people adjust the this type of vision easily. Do you know what percent of people do not like this.

Answer: The technique of monovision for near vision correction has been used for many years for patients wishing to avoid bifocals or reading glasses. Monovision contact lenses and monovision LASIK have proven to be an effective method of near vision correction for patients requiring correction of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. The success with monovision in any correction is dependent of the physician taking careful measurements, doing careful calculations and attempting to determine the patient tolerance to "defocus". This can be approximated by doing an in office trial with a spectacle trial frame and lenses or through the use of contact lenses. It is more difficult to approximate and demonstrate when one eye has a Cataract that blurs the vision as it doesn't give a true demonstration. That said, when it can be demonstrated and is well tolerated by patients in the office trial the success rate is in the 80% range (Cataract & Refractive Surgery, Kohnen and Koch:  2008). In an older survey of the published literature without any standardized testing or screening the composite success rate of all publications was 73% (Survey of Ophthalmology, Jan, Aurora, Azar: May 1996).

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