Liquid accommodating intraocular lens with suspended central lens
View Patent ↗An intraocular lens (IOL) has a small, central lens suspended within a pliable housing and, when the housing is filled with liquid, is coaxially aligned with a second small lens embedded in the wall of the housing. The suspension is on a dome- or other-shaped webbing attached to an inner circumference of the wall. When filled with liquid, forces squeezing or pulling the equator of the housing, as with ciliary muscles in the eye, adjust a distance between the lenses in order to adjust focus. Optional haptics may project from points on or above and below the equator. A recess in the posterior hemisphere of the housing can keep cell growth away from an optical axis of the lens system. A third small lens can be embedded in an opposite wall of the housing and coaxially aligned with the other lenses to form a three-lens, ultra-zoom system.
1 . An accommodating intraocular lens apparatus comprising:
a liquid-inflatable, pliable shell having an equator defined by a farthest circumference of the shell from an optical axis of the shell;
a sealable valve in the shell;
a resilient webbing extending from an internal circumference of the shell;
a central lens suspended across a center of the shell by the webbing;
a second lens disposed within an anterior wall of the shell; and
a depression formed in a posterior wall of the shell opposite the second lens, the depression having a continuous rim disposed around the optical axis,
wherein when the shell is full of liquid:
a most posterior point within the depression is less posterior than the entire rim such that any line between any two points on the rim does not touch any portion of the depression,
the central lens and the second lens are coaxial, and
radially pulling or pushing on the equator alters a distance between the lenses while keeping the lenses coaxial.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the resilient webbing arcs in a direction parallel to the optical axis.
3 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the resilient webbing includes multiple distinct curved arms.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the resilient webbing includes a film annulus having apertures therein.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a seam formed from two halves of the pliable shell, wherein the seam neither is disposed at nor crosses the equator.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a set of haptic arms projecting from areas on the shell not on the equator of the shell.
7 . The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the set of haptic arms is a first set of haptic arms, the apparatus further comprising:
a second set of haptic arms projecting from areas on the shell on an opposite hemisphere of the equator from the first set of haptic arms.
8 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein ends of the first and the second haptic arms are joined together.
9 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sealable valve includes:
an annulus; and
a self-sealing polymer body surrounded by the annulus, the polymer body being softer than the annulus.
10 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a layer of parylene over the sealable valve.
11 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central lens is formed from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), silicone, siloxane, fluorosilane, or hydrophobic acrylate.
12 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
the liquid filling the liquid-inflatable, pliable shell.
13 . The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the seam was produced by:
adding uncured polymer across a first half of the pliable shell and a second half of the pliable shell in order to join the halves and form a seam.
14 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sealable valve is a first sealable valve, the apparatus further comprising:
a second sealable valve on the pliable shell disposed symmetrically opposite the optical axis from the first sealable valve.