Crossed Dominance Monovision Cataract Surgery

Question: I had a cataract surgery on my right eye (dominant). Now I see very well up close from that eye but I have difficulties with distance. My doctor suggested to implant a lens in my left eye-I'll have that surgery in two weeks-to see far distances. I have read about monovision and every article says that the far distance lens should be implanted in the dominant eye. What will be consequences of have the far distance lens in the non-dominant eye and the near vision lens on the dominant eye?

Answer: The question you are asking is whether there are any consequences of “crossed dominance” optical correction for monovision. It is not all that uncommon to inadvertently create monovision using the dominant eye for near and the non-dominate eye for distance vision-it does happen. The question is whether a patient can tolerate crossed dominance. With time, yes most patients do tolerate the crossed dominance and get used to it. The best guesstimate is that 80% adapt to crossed dominance-which is the same percent that successfully adapt to monovision optical correction in general. Your best course of action is to follow the advice of your Cataract Surgeon.

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