Recently, I have often been asked by patients who have cataract hands in outpatient clinics whether they still need IOL implantation for high myopia. I would like to say a few words about this.
First of all, the patients who ask such questions are not empty, and there is still some basis for this statement or opinion. For patients with high myopia, especially those with about 2,000 degrees of myopia, if an IOL is to be placed, the result of the calculation is usually in the range of no more than a few degrees according to their post-operative correction to ideal orthokeratology. In this case, it is theoretically possible not to put IOLs, in other words, it is like saying that a flat pair of glasses has no effect on vision with or without them. I think in this extremely special case, but from the perspective of correcting vision, this IOL can be implanted without having to be.
However, most of the patients we encounter in the clinic with high myopia combined with cataracts will still result in a not-so-small degree of refractive error if the IOL is not placed after surgery, according to their myopia. Therefore, IOLs should still be implanted for this group of patients to obtain the best corrected visual acuity.
At the same time, experience in recent years has taught us that the IOL placed is to some extent a barrier between the front and back of the eye, and it can have a protective effect on the fundus to some extent. At the same time, the IOL implanted in the capsular bag has a certain inhibitory effect on the occurrence of posterior capsular clouding.
Therefore, we believe it is better to implant IOLs as much as possible when conditions permit.