This summer I had cataract surgery in both eyes and opted for the Symfony lens implants, including a toric lens in the astigmatic right eye.
My experience, two months out in left eye and two months out in right eye: Distance is crisp and colors are sharper. Daytime driving is noticeably easier.
Nighttime driving is a problem; severe halos around headlights and streetlights, like starbursts coming at me down the highway and concentric circles particularly in red lights. I also experience the same to some degree with bright images on a dark background on the television screen. Not as intense as with driving, but noticeable halos. My ophthalmologist says they will go away in time, but I am not yet convinced. There has been no improvement yet.
Computer work is fine, although I have increased font size a bit for less eye strain. Need 1.25 to 1.50 reading glasses for smaller print in books and on labels. I have residual astigmatism in the right eye, which had a toric lens implant. This may require treatment with Lasik.
Considering the expense of the lenses, I may have been better off with mono-focal lenses and continued glasses, which would have been covered by insurance. So the jury is out with me.
Sorry to learn that you also have the night vision issues due to the Symfony lenses.
It is amazing that the ophthalmologists keep telling their patients that the concentric circles and starbursts will go away with time while it rarely seems to work out that way. I also haven't seen any changes in the concentric circles since my Symfony lens installation in the right eye during the last 1 year. (starbursts are due to the the required prescription error or irregular astigmatism and will change depending upon how well your eyes focus.
Going back to the concentric circles, one just learns to live with those just like one does with many not-so-good things in life.
Thanks for this response, it confirms what I have felt. I believe that what really will happen is that I will just eventually adapt to these things as "the new normal." The ophthalmologist and everyone on his staff assure me that virtually every previous patient says that these effects go away. Maybe everyone else is just adapting as well. I do notice that the starbursts have lessened just a small bit recently, so I hold out hope.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. Several of you now have reported a similar problem with the Symfony lens (that was recommended to me by a private consultant). I have now decided to go with the NHS monofocal lens as I do quite a lot of night time driving. Your experiences have helped me to reach a decision.
Try not to lose hope just yet, I had different lenses to you (Carl Zeiss Trifocal, Toric in both eyes), I'm almost 4 months in now and the biggest improvements happened for me just before the 3 month mark. For the first month, my distance vision was very poor and night driving, even walking around at night was incredibly uncomfortable and driving being almost impossible due to the glare from lights. But now at almost 4 months I can see perfectly at night, strangely enough the weirdest time for me as that couple of hours where Day turns to Night. That's when I notice the glare still, maybe that's cos my pupils are adjusting to the lower light conditions, I am not sure?!
But honestly, I barely notice halos or glare etc now and can drive perfectly well at night. It's difficult to do but just try to see how the next few months go before losing hope!
Hi Jerome - I too had Symfony lenses implanted July and August this past summer. Found the glare and starbursts to be strong in the beginning - so much so I did not see the concentric circles. I have noticed improvement and there isn’t nearly had much glare and starbursts (except certain car headlights - the newer LED ones but almost everyone I talk to without cataracts finds those annoying on a dark road). I do now see the concentric circles with the diminished glare/starbursts but they aren’t as difficult to see through when driving. In the beginning Indidnt drive at night much but now I don’t think about it. Doesn’t keep me home or worry me. I too have excellent daytime vision - haven’t worn glasses since the surgeries. Overall very pleased with the outcome of Symfony lenses. My surgeon did let me know the trade/off with the IOLs and let me know as a younger cataract patient that I would have to make a compromise no matter which lens I chose. Perhaps because I was aware of the night halos prior to surgery it helped guide my decision. Given my line of work I think I would have found it more annoying trying to adjust to bifocals or 2 sets of glasses.
Hi jerome49013,
May I ask how old you are? And would you go with Symfony if they were the same cost as covered by insurance?
Thanks.
Thanks so much! This is what my doctor says, don't lose hope. He says it just might take a bit longer for me than other patients. I hope that's true and I am encouraged by your success!
Hi soks,
I am 61. At this point I can't say I would have chosen them if covered by insurance. If things improve, I may change that opinion.
Thanks!
Hi Sue.An - Yes, even my partner complains about the new LED lights, those are a great nuisance to everyone. I had worn bifocals - actually, progressives - for about 10 years. The results were not perfect, as the reading lens portion was usually too thin unless I got gigantic frames. I think the starbursts are lessening slightly, or else I've just gotten used to them. Thanks for responding!
Anne, I wish you the best outcome.
So glad you wrote in Daniel, appreciate your openness and the response of others to you. I'm struggling with the same decision you were six months ago. I'm schedule for cataract surgery in three weeks and find myself going back and forth between Symfony toric and Tecnis toric mono-focal. I'm 77 years old, comfortable with glasses 24/7 and do several hours of reading each morning using both hard copy and computer. I golf a little and walk a lot and my doc (has done 15,000 cataract surgery's in his career including 200 Symfony over the past year) recommends the Symfony toric for me. He feels I will enjoy not having to wear glasses most of the time, even though I have no problem doing so now, especially just walking around the house and for any outside activity. I plan to wear progressive lenses with the Symfony to correct for any uncorrected astigmatism, and to sharpen my view at all distances. My doc confirms the possible complications we read about with starbursts, halo's, and glare, but says they can also occur with the mono-focal. So I'm wondering, if expense were not part of the decision you made, would you still chose the benefits of the Symfony lens, or not so, given the open question on halo's? Would also appreciate any advice from others in the forum.
You’re welcome. Just in my own research and discussion with my opthamologist (Soks for you too if following) - it is essential to get a good surgeon used to implanting premium lenses. It’s essential surgeon hits the target spot on (or very near). You want excellent daytime vision without glasses otherwise why pay for these and compromise the night vision.
And I do find with time night vision improves. I have an uncle in UK who opted for multifocal lenses and he also advised that it took several months before he was comfortable with night driving.
Daniel - I would encourage you to reach out to Night Hawk as he had just a week ago had a Technis monofocal toric implanted. His vision has been improving a bit each day and looks very good for distance he’ll wind up at 20/20. He is considering a mini monovision with a symfony in his other eye to give him more mid and near vision which he won’t get with the Technis toric monofocal.
My posts are above - I have 2 Symfony regular lenses and see well at all distances. Been over 2 months and I do not need glasses.
I wore glasses since my teen years but had no trouble reading but was not keen on losing near vision after cataract surgery. I work full time with spreadsheets and computer so that played a lot into my decision. Night vision getting better and I would not trade the few hours a week I drive at night for having great daytime vision- better than I have had in years.
Yes, I got a Tecnics monofocal toric IOL (3D cornea cylinder) in my right eye 10 days ago.
This morning I achieved the best vision yet in that eye, easily 20/20 and often able to read the next lower line 20/15 too! Thats getting very close to matching my unoperated on left eye's best corrected vision - its excellent gets 20/15 and sometimes even the next smaller line 20/12. I will be very pleased if my right eye settles around this spot where it is today, reminds me of what that eye could do years ago with a good contact lens.
I have had some small floaters in both eyes for several years, but now they are all pretty transparent little blobs so don't block my vision and I hardly ever notice them. In the right eye they just sometimes can cause a little cloudy view for a few seconds if a ghostly one moves in the middle, so not a big issue.
I do like that with the tecnis monofocal toric IOL I don't have any significant halos, or other night vision artifacts - at least no different than my other unoperated on eye with eyeglasses for best corrected vision. I noticed last night the full moon appeared quite a bit brighter in the right eye with the IOL than the left eye, so the left eye could see more details on the moon's surface since the right eye it was too bright! I suspect that extra light sensitivity will reduce in the coming weeks/months.
So better results today. Amazing how it’s been improving day by day. I too noticed the very bright full moon 2 days ago. Could see the craters - which I haven’t been able to do without glasses for years. It’s a whole new world!
With the latest best vision in my right eye today with the toric IOL, I again today tested near and intermediate vision with various OTC reading glasses I have around with that eye.
With +1.0D glasses added, thats fine for computer screen viewing at 24"+ but for smartphone use I have to extend my arm to maximum for clearest vision so its not really comfortable and its not as clear closer than that - I guess useable for shorter periods, kind of the bare minimum.
With +1.5D glasses smartphone use is excellent at a more comfortable viewing distance maybe 16" or so. I would guess +1.25D would work as well with maybe 20" viewing distance.
So I would want to target my left eye for about +1.25D (window +1.0 to +1.5) to achieve decent computer and smartphone viewing. With a monofocal toric in the left eye set for that much nearsightedness, it might be OK but reduced distance vision accuity in that eye.
A Symfony toric IOL should be able to provide that much range especially if it were targeted for -0.25D or -0.50D while still should get decent distance vision too which is my ideal goal to have both good distance depth perception (both eyes together) plus decent intermediate computer and smartphone vision with at least one eye without glasses. A monofocal toric IOL in the left eye could achieve the latter but not the former, but would offer improved night vision and probably no artifacts like no halos and circles around lights indoors and outdoors that the Symfony might do, though less so with only one eye. While driving if a particular nasty situation occured temporarily with the Symfony eye, could always close it for a minute using the monofocal eye until a bad light artifact from a car had passed by.
Those are the tradeoffs for me to consider for the future, probably for the next few months or longer I will have to just get new sets of eyeglasses to get the best vision from both eyes together, though its looking like the right eye will just have a clear eyeglass lens with very little or no correction needed...
Thank you Sue for the referral to Night Hawk as well as your own experience, both help in getting me to focus on what is my objective. I have heard that two Symfony's will work better together than just one symfony and a different lens in the other, have you heard that?
Yes two Symfony IOLs should allow both eyes to work together better at all the focus ranges for distance to intermediate and some near.
Mixing a Symfony with a monofocal set for distance should give the same dual eye vision for distance, but for intermediate and near it will be using primarily the Symfony eye so would be a little less but still I think better than both eyes monofocal, except for the night vision artifacts of the Symfony. The mixed Symfony with monofocal option however may reduce the effects of the night vision artifacts compared to both eyes with Symfony. But for reading, both eyes with Symfony clearly is an advantage.
Agree with Night Hawk. There are pros and cons to both set ups. Yes 2 Symfony lenses work well together but a monofocal targeted for distance with a Symfony targeted -5D would provide good vision all distances but less night vision halos since the concentric circles only start at about 30 yards.