REFRACTIVE LENS EXCHANGE aka RLE/NLR +IOLs

A card like this should be given to all patients after undergoing lens replacement surgery.





If you've had RLE surgery and were not given a card, I advise that you contact Optical Express and remind them to send it asap.

You have a right to this information - you never know when you might need it

With cataract surgery (RLE) being sold as a more expensive option to laser eye surgery (to people without cataracts), it is impossible to escape the blanket advertising promoting the fallacy that this magic implant can 'cure' the need for reading glasses - or any glasses, forever.

"At three months, TECNIS® Symfony IOL subjects experienced high spectacle independence at far, intermediate, and near distances."
www.tecnisiol.com/eu/tecnis-symfony-iol.htm

Trust me, this is a myth!

The Symfony lens is still in its infancy (marketed late 2014), and therefore no reliable statistics available.

Bobby Qureshi, director of the London Eye Hospital, is one of many independent surgeons who advertise themselves with superlatives: "He is one of the world’s most experienced and leading ophthalmic surgeons having pioneered some of the greatest advances in recent history...
He is the most experienced laser cataract surgeon in the UK.”

Who said so? Bobby Qureshi and his PR agent of course!

His website also claims: ”...the safest and most technologically advanced surgery in the most luxurious setting by the most experienced surgeon”.

Impressive indeed - four superlatives in one sentence!

A recent TV story in the US reported: "London eye surgeon Bobby Qureshi says replacing the eye's natural lens with the Symfony implant is as safe as laser eye surgery.”
www.keyc.com/story/27726470/new-implante...-fix-vision-problems

As too many people can testify - me included, laser eye surgery is definitely NOT safe, so what does that say for the Symfony lens?

It wasn’t so long ago that self proclaimed "most experienced" Bobby Qureshi was raving about the Synchrony lens:
"The Synchrony accommodating implant allows patients to see well at all distances which means near, intermediate and far without glasses or contact lenses. It is the only implant in the world which expands and contracts naturally to give a continuous change in focus without compromising the quality of vision – just like our natural lens when we are young.”
www.londoneyehospital.com/treatments/syn...-accommodating-lens/

Earlier today I called the London Eye Hospital and spoke with their Patient Manager. I asked if they still use Synchrony lenses: “We don’t use it very often at all, in fact I can’t remember the last time we actually used it."

I asked what was wrong with the Synchrony: "Results weren’t as easy to predict… it was very specific to a certain type of patient… and even with that patient we found that the other lenses generally had better results.” (recorded)

Then why is the Synchrony lens still advertised on the LEH site, and should previous patients who were told it was “right for (them)” be concerned?

Perhaps like the Synchrony lens, as soon as Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) develop a new 'all singing, all dancing' lens, Bobby Qureshi will also banish the Symfony to Room 101!

Meanwhile, “as safe as laser eye surgery” is definitely a phrase I will keep in mind

I am devastated!

As a scuba instructor travelling all over the world, I was fed up with swapping between lenses and glasses, so I had lens replacement in my left eye on 21st December ’14 and the second eye a week later.

I am less than 3 weeks post op but I know my vision is not right.

I cannot see in low light and whilst I can read small print it seems like I'm looking through cling film and it makes me feel nauseous. I tried to walk the dog this morning and I could not see him 40ft away!

I have been back to the clinic this morning and been told it's a matter of time, but I don't have time! Yes, I expected not to dive for 12 weeks as Optical Express told me, but in this condition I could not ever be responsible for students under water. Right now I see no way out of this.

Strangely, after my first lens was inserted my sight was worse than before the operation. I was told it was because the other lens had not been put in, so I used a contact lens in my right eye and things were ok. I mentioned this to the surgeon Alex George before the second eye was done and he abruptly told me I had better than 20/20 vision.

Yes I can see small print without glasses, but my sight is NOT improving as they say, and my world is a horrid sickly blur. I hope something will change because I cannot live like this.

The misleading description of laser lens replacement surgery being "non-evasive"remains on the Optical Express website! This would be laughable if it didn't have such potentially serious consequences, especially if carried out on unsuitable patients with unsuitable lens implants.

Until legislation and regulation is enforced by the government; and here is yet another prime example of why this has to be made to happen?!

I am yet again, writing to my MP, SMP, the Care Quality Commission, Healthcare improvement Scotland and of course Which?. Anyone else worth writing to? General Optical Council? This is the good thing about not being gagged.

I request that others left with problems through lens surgery with Optical Express do the same.

To quote Mr Steve Schallhorn

"This process (informed consent!) starts even before the patient shows up/even before the consultation with the information that's available, written information!"

What about information on the Optical Express website?!

Laser lens surgery is described on Optical Express's website as "non-evasive". Are they being deliberately misleading, dishonest - or maybe just plain stupid? How ridiculous is this description?

Ordinary people with no knowledge will take this at face value and believe that this surgery is without risk! This is WRONG! The beginning of the Optical Express informed consent process!

If you experienced retinal detachment after undergoing RLE or NLE (refractive/natural lens exchange) please contact me asap

admin@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

"It’s an increasingly common scenario: A middle-aged woman with minimal refractive error visits her ophthalmologist. She’s annoyed by the fact that she needs reading glasses and she’s determined to get rid of them. She’s been surfing the Web, reading about accommodative and pseudoaccommodative IOLs, and arrives armed with articles. She hates wearing glasses. She cannot (or will not) tolerate monovision contact lenses. She has no sign of cataracts, but she is “desperate to do something,” and she wants to talk about refractive lens exchange procedures

What do you tell such a person when she visits your office? For James J. Salz, MD, the answer is obvious: No way. “Regardless of the extent of the patient consent she signed, there is not a chance I could defend in court performing intraocular surgery simply to get rid of a $10 pair of reading glasses.” It is a view he shares with the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company, which has, in the past several years, published guidelines to help surgeons navigate the somewhat murky legal and ethical waters of this increasingly popular refractive procedure”

According to Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (Betsy Kelley): “Ophthalmologists may have a difficult time getting in front of a jury or judge to defend this procedure in the event of an adverse outcome, especially if the patient is relatively young with minimal refractive error and no evidence of cataracts,”
www.aao.org/publications/eyenet/200506/feature.cfm

Worldwide studies are funded by the industry, by those who make the most profit from refractive eye surgery, and statistics are therefore biased.

At a meeting in April, I argued this with Julian Stevens, one of Moorfields’ best known refractive eye surgeons, and he agreed with me (recorded).

I would like to believe that Sir Harold Ridley would not have approved of his sight saving invention being sold as an economic commodity:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ridley_%28ophthalmologist%29

According to the OE website they are offering laser lens surgery.
Is this superior method available now at all OE locations carrying out lens surgery?


www.opticalexpress.co.uk/lens-surgery/what-is-lens-surgery.html

"All Laser Natural Lens Replacement Surgery is a non-evasive method of performing your treatment using femtosecond laser technology."

"Non-evasive"?


Does this mean that they will look after those patients unfortunate to develop complications without imposing a gagging clause?

Except for newspaper sized text my vision was brilliant. The woman who tested me at Specsavers said my long range vision was amazing. Now it's all gone to hell on a handcart.

I should have taken notice of the Spitting image song "I've never met a nice South African"

Trouble is this one had a scalpel in his hand!

What could you see prior to the surgery