Elaine Wilcox

Lens Replacement Surgery

Elaine Wilcox, a lady from Knottingley has become one of the first in the UK to have a revolutionary new ‘zoom’ lens implanted in her eyes to correct her deteriorating vision.

55 year old Elaine Wilcox, who lives in Ferrybridge, has been suffering with presbyopia – long-sightedness as a result of the ageing process. As her sight was becoming worse, she decided to explore vision correction treatments and her timing was perfect as a revolutionary new eye lens was just being introduced for the first time, specifically to treat patients with her condition. The lens is the first of its kind and is set to spearhead a whole new category of vision correction lenses and represents a different approach to treating patients with presbyopia.

Elaine, who teaches adults from across the region, had thought about having vision correction treatment but admittedly resisted taking any action as she was initially nervous of surgical procedures.

She said: “Myself and my partner Ray are huge fans of the outdoors and are very active in general. We have three very energetic dogs and are out in all weathers, whether it is visiting the Dales or the Coast. It was becoming increasingly difficult to enjoy my outdoor and active lifestyle with my deteriorating vision. Even supermarket shopping was beginning to be a difficult chore! I just thought that enough is enough and it is time to do something about it which is when I found out about Mr Pande. It was coincidence that the new lens was just being introduced so I was very fortunate to benefit from such a state-of-the-art treatment.”

She had the new lens, known as the Symfony lens, surgically inserted into her eye to restore her sight to pin-sharp focus from very near to very far. Milind Pande, consultant ophthalmologist and medical director of Vision Surgery & Research Centre in East Yorkshire performed the Lens Replacement Surgery. He hails the new, technologically advanced lens as ‘groundbreaking’ and describes it as something that the field of ophthalmic vision correction has been waiting for.

He said: “The Symfony lens which I implanted in Elaine’s eyes, spearheads a new category of lenses capable of an unprecedented level of smooth sight correction. Until now no replacement lens has been able to give such near perfect vision and mimic natural vision so closely. We have used some excellent multifocal lenses but these can produce side effects and the patient can experience halo glare. For the first time, the Symfony gives continuous vision with its smooth, continuous focus – it is just the same as having a zoom lens like that of a camera inside your eye – it really is incredible. This new lens works in a different way to all others as it has very small circular grooves in the front of the lens which change the rays of light so that the range of focus is stretched out from near to far. Recovery time is minimal, with patients able to return to their usual routine just 24hours after surgery. The results can only be described as ground-breaking.”

Elaine concluded: “Having the Lens Replacement Surgery has been life-transforming. Because your eyes deteriorate slowly, you can forget how it used to be when you had good vision, and now it feels like the clock has been turned back. I would definitely recommend treatment with this new lens, I wish I’d had the treatment done a long time ago.”