Intraocular lens injector apparatus
An injector for injecting an IOL into an eye, comprising an injector body having a lumen wall defining a lumen, a plunger having a longitudinal axis and a soft tip at a distal end of the plunger. The soft tip having a concave distal surface. In a plane including the longitudinal axis, the plane being perpendicular to an IOL optical axis when the IOL is located at a staging area of the injector body, the concave distal surface extending in a direction at a non-perpendicular angle relative to the longitudinal axis. The concave distal surface may be oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction, and the concave distal surface has no curvature along the direction.
1 . An injector system for injecting an intraocular lens (IOL) into an eye, comprising:
an injector body having a lumen wall defining a lumen, the lumen having a distal end configured to permit the IOL to be delivered into the eye; and
a plunger having a longitudinal axis and a soft tip at a distal end of the plunger, the soft tip being configured to advance the IOL through the lumen to the distal end of the lumen, the soft tip having a concave distal surface with a plane extending therethrough,
the plane including the longitudinal axis and the plane being perpendicular to an IOL optical axis when the IOL is located at a staging area of the injector body, and in the plane, the concave distal surface extending in a direction at a non-perpendicular angle relative to the longitudinal axis, the direction being tangential to the concave distal surface along its length.
2 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface is oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.
3 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface is circularly cylindrically-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.
4 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the soft tip comprises an elastomer.
5 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface defines a concavity and wherein no feature of the soft tip extends into the concavity.
6 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface has a blind bore formed therethrough, the blind bore extending through the soft tip proximally from the concave distal surface.
7 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is in the range of 40-70 degrees.
8 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is in the range of 45-65 degrees.
9 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is about 60 degrees.
10 . The injector system of claim 1 , having an IOL disposed in a staging area of the injector body, the IOL having a haptic extending proximally from the optic, the soft tip configured to contact less than 10% of the haptic length as measured from the optic body to a distant end of the haptic, at initial contact between the soft tip and the haptic.
11 . The injector system of claim 10 , wherein the soft tip is configured to contact no more than 50% of the haptic length at any point during the plunger actuation.
12 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the injector body is comprised of two or more components each forming a portion of the lumen.
13 . The injector system of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the components constitutes an IOL shuttle.
14 . The injector system of claim 13 , wherein the shuttle has an IOL disposed therein in a biased state with a center of an optic body displaced relative to opposing circumferential outer edge locations of the optic body such that the optic body contacts and conforms to a wall of the lumen.
15 . A method of inserting an intraocular lens (IOL) including an optic body and a haptic into an eye by operating the injector system of claim 1 , the method comprising:
inserting the IOL at the staging area; actuating the plunger to move a portion of the haptic on top of the optic body.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the actuating step comprises, upon initial contact with the haptic, contacting less than 10% of the haptic length as measured from the optic body to a distant end of the haptic.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the actuating step comprises, moving the IOL from a staging area of the injector body through a distal end of the lumen while contacting no more than 50% of the haptic length at any point during movement of the IOL from the staging area to the distal end of the lumen.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the concave distal surface is oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.