What is an Intraocular Lens (IOL)?

Much like a camera, your eye's natural crystalline lens plays an important role in focusing images. When a cataract clouds the lens, it makes it virtually impossible to see clearly. (See How the Eye Works.)

When your cataract progresses to the point that daily tasks become difficult and interferes with your quality of life, you will need cataract surgery. During surgery, your eye's natural lens will be replaced by an intraocular lens, or IOL.

An intraocular lens is an artificial lens made of plastic, silicone or acrylic that performs the function of the eye's natural lens. Most of today's IOLs are around a quarter of an inch in diameter and soft enough to be folded so they can be placed into the eye through a very small incision.

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Read about advances in cataract treatment.

Many of today's advanced lenses not only restore vision but can reduce or virtually eliminate your dependency on glasses. Lenses are now available that correct distance vision, near vision, astigmatism and other eye conditions.

Did You Know?

Inspiration for the first replacement lens came from a WWII dogfight between British and German pilots. British ophthalmologist Sir Harold Ridley treated a Royal Air Force pilot after shards of his bullet-riddled canopy lodged in his eyes. Ridley noticed the pilot's eyes did not reject the foreign material and correctly theorized that a plastic lens could permanently replace an eye's clouded natural lens.

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