Time to throw away your specs - Times of India

LONDON: Fed up with your reading glasses? Fret not, scientists have developed a new revolutionary eye procedure which they say could allow millions to abandon their spectacles. The new treatment, which involves an operation to insert a plastic implant into the eye, has shown good results in trials carried out recently.

In the procedure, called Z Kamra, a laser is used to make an incision in the cornea, the front lens of the eye, so that an inlay thinner than a red blood cell can be inserted by hand. Looking like a flattened black polo mint, and smaller than a contact lens, the implant sits around the iris and pupil and works like a pinhole camera, the Daily Telegraph reported.

It reduces the amount of light allowed through the pupil to reach the retina, the part of the eye where rays of light are turned into images. By allowing through central beams, which produce the sharpest images, and blocking out those on our outer range of vision, which are useful for seeing in dark light but do not produce clear pictures, the implant can restore the perfect vision most of us were born with, the researchers said.

"Finding a treatment for presbyopia is important," said ophthalmologist Dr David Allamby, who specializes in the condition.

The procedure costs 2,800 for one eye but 90% of patients will need both eyes treating for 4,600. Equivalent laser surgery would cost around 4,000. Dr Larry Benjamin , an eye surgeon in Buckinghamshire said, "This won't suit everyone and I imagine certain professionals such as pilots would not be allowed it."