Module 3 – IOL Materials & Designs

👁️ Types of Intraocular Lenses (IOLs)

• Monofocal: Clear vision at one distance; glasses often needed for near/intermediate.

• Multifocal: Multiple zones for varied distances; reduces need for glasses. Made of concentric rings - sometime cause "halo - when driving".

• Toric: Corrects astigmatism.

• EDOF (Extended Depth of Focus): Smooth range from far to intermediate; fewer halos.

• Accommodating: Mimics natural lens movement for dynamic focus.

🧪 Materials

• PMMA: Rigid, older material; large incision required.

• Silicone: Flexible, foldable; not ideal for patients needing retinal surgery.

• Acrylic:

  • Hydrophobic: Most common; biocompatible, low PCO risk.

  • Hydrophilic: Softer, flexible; higher PCO risk.

🛠️ Design Features

• Foldable vs. Rigid: Foldables allow smaller incisions and faster recovery.

• Aspheric Optics: Reduce spherical aberration, improve contrast.

• Blue-Light Filtering: Protects retina from high-energy light.

• Haptics: Stabilize lens inside the eye; designs include C-loop, plate-haptic, open-loop.

Key Point:

Material determines biocompatibility and incision size, while design determines optical performance and stability. Modern IOLs are almost always foldable hydrophobic acrylic with advanced optics.

2. YouTube Learning References (2 for Module 3)

1. IOL Materials & Designs Explained – Ophthalmology

2. PMMA vs Acrylic vs Silicone IOLs – Cataract Surgery Education

3. FAQs (5) – Dual Language

Q1 : What was the first material used for IOLs?   IOL အတွက် ပထမဆုံး သုံးခဲ့သည့် ပစ္စည်းက ဘာလဲ?

PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate).  PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) ဖြစ်သည်။

Q2 : What is the main advantage of foldable IOLs compared to rigid ones?  Foldable IOL များသည် Rigid IOL များထက် အကျိုးကျေးဇူး ဘာရှိသလဲ?

They require a smaller incision, leading to faster recovery.  ခွဲစိတ်ပြွန်အသေးလိုအပ်ပြီး နောက်ဆက်တွဲ သက်သာချေကာ တိုးတက်စေသည်။

Q3 : Why are hydrophobic acrylic IOLs preferred?  Hydrophobic Acrylic IOL များကို များစွာ အသုံးပြုသည့်အကြောင်းရင်းက ဘာလဲ?

They have better biocompatibility and lower risk of posterior capsule opacification. Biocompatibility ကောင်းပြီး PCO ဖြစ်နိုင်ချေ နည်းသောကြောင့် ဖြစ်သည်။

Q4 : What is the function of IOL haptics?   IOL Haptics ၏ အလုပ်လုပ်ပုံက ဘာလဲ?

To stabilize and center the lens inside the capsular bag. Lens ကို Capsular Bag အတွင်း တည်ငြိမ်စေပြီး အလယ်စက်တင်ထားရန် ဖြစ်သည်။

Q5 : What is the benefit of aspheric IOLs?  Aspheric IOL ၏ အကျိုးကျေးဇူးက ဘာလဲ?

They reduce spherical aberration and improve contrast sensitivity.  Spherical Aberration ကို လျော့ချပြီး Contrast Sensitivity ကို တိုးတက်စေသည်။

✅ This completes Module 3: IOL Materials & Designs with:

• reading handout

• 2 YouTube learning references

• 5 FAQs (EN + MM)

• 10 MCQs (EN + MM)