We report the first experience with presbyopia correcting femtosecond laser surgical procedure INTRACOR. This procedure is so far the only one that is made purely intrastromally without generating a wound connected to corneal surface or anterior chamber. Presbyopia – caused by physiological aging and decreasing elasticity of the lens, impairs patient’s accommodative ability. In the case of the method INTRACOR, presbyopia is corrected by steepening of corneal curvature in the central optical zone. Procedure is usually performed only in the non-dominant eye.
Methods: Intracor procedure was performed in 10 eyes of 10 patients (3 women and 7 men, aged 47–58 years). All procedures were performed with the femtosecond laser VICTUS (Bausch - Lomb, USA) in the non-dominant eye by an experienced surgeon.
Results: One-year follow-up. Mean monocular uncorrected near visual acuity (UNVA) improved from 0.2 ± 0.1 before surgery to 0.7 ± 0.3 after treatment (mean improvement of four lines). Mean near uncorrected binocular visual acuity (UNBVA) improved from a mean preoperative value of 0.23 ± 0.08 to a mean postoperative value of 0.8 ± 0.22 (mean improvement of about 5 lines). The mean monocular uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) was 0.9 ± 0.1 before surgery and 0.8 ± 0.3 after treatment (average loss of 1 line). The mean binocular uncorrected distance visual acuity improved from 1.0 ± 0,1 to 1,3 ± 0.3 after surgery. All patients had improvements in near vision. In 3 patient, monocular distance vision improved, in 6 patient improved binocular distance vision. We observed statistically significant decrease (mean loss of 1 line) of monocular best corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA). Patients subjectively reported satisfaction with the quality of vision achieved for near and distance and high levels of spectacle independence under good lighting conditions. The results shows that INTRACOR method is well suitable for low hyperopic patients, who because of good distance visual acuity are not good candidates for refractive lens exchange with multifocal intraocular lens implantation.