As we age, beginning around the age of 40, the natural lens inside the eye begins to harden and lose its flexibility. This reduces the eye’s ability to change its focus from near to intermediate, to distance, and back again. This is known as “loss of accommodation” or “presbyopia,” and its earliest symptom is difficulty seeing things up close. Bifocal and even trifocal glasses become necessary for some people to see clearly at all distances.

As the natural lens of the eye continues to deteriorate, it starts to become cloudy or brown. Vision becomes blurry, and colors lose their brilliance. At first, frequent changes in glasses prescriptions can help, but left untreated, cataracts can lead to blindness. The only way to see clearly after a cataract matures is to have it removed and then replaced with an intraocular lens, or IOL.

Until recently, patients undergoing lens implant surgery received a monofocal, or single focus IOL. Monofocal IOLs implanted in both eyes generally provide excellent distance vision, while patients often need spectacle correction for near and intermediate vision. In the late 1990s, Advanced Medical Optics (AMO) introduced its first multifocal IOL designed to provide multiple points of focus, thereby dramatically reducing the need for bifocals or trifocal glasses after surgery.

Today, with its many optical design enhancements, AMO’s second-generation ReZoom™ Multifocal IOL is providing patients with a full range of vision and greater independence from glasses or contact lenses than ever before. Clinical studies show that 92% of those receiving the ReZoom™ Lens technology “never”, or “only occasionally,” need to wear glasses.¹