Booked to have Symony lenses for my cataracts,any advice would be
helpful,very unsure as so many negative results.
One thing to consider is what cataract surgeons would choose for themselves, since they moderate links, google this to see the most recent article I'd seen on the topic (the first I recall since the Symfony came out), although its only a few anecdotes rather than a survey/poll:
"What does the sum of all this experience and exposure mean when the time comes for their own cataract surgeries? Here are the informed choices of four leading cataract surgeons."
Where for instance one notes: "Since I enjoyed the monovision so much, I have always maintained that would be my preference. However, after gaining experience with the Symfony IOL, (Abbott) I would probably choose that. My reason is that the Symfony is giving our patients a significantly increased depth of focus. It is also a very forgiving lens with a large sweet spot. I have used it in multiple postrefractive surgery patients, with excellent outcomes.".
Eye surgeons of course are atypical in terms of how cruicial the quality of their vision is and so admittedly many are concerned with the absolute best vision at 1 distance to use when operating with their microscope, which would be a monofocal, rather than what is most convenient. So its actually interesting that many would choose a premium lens. Most people don't have such exacting visual requirements and wouldn't even notice the difference with a multifocal, and the Symfony is even better (I have at least 20/15 vision at distance, they didn't have a line below that to test and that was easy, and that is even without the slight correction which would improve it a bit). I'd seen a presentation video indicating that real world results suggest perhaps to on average expect 20/17 distance with an aspheric monofocal, 20/18 with the Symfony, 20/20 with a spheric monofocal (rarely used) and 20/22 with a multifocal, though I'd seen at least one study where the Symfony had better distance vision than the monofocal control (due to its chromatic aberration correction), while most seem to put them as comparable within the margin of error or a trivial edge for the monofocal.
There are over 20 milion cataract sugeries a year worldwide, and over 480,000 with premium lenses. Most people never come online to research or post unless they have problems (aside from some who of us who researched before surgery and "give back" afterwards trying to kepe things in perspective). Although I don't know the market share of the Symfony, many surgeons seem excited about it so I suspect is growing rapidly. Even a small % of people with problems can lead to a decent number of posts of people with problems. Those who went to the trouble of getting something different are more apt to try to assign blame to the different thing, when the problem may have been one they'd have had with a monofocal (e.g. I see people complaining about what turns out to be the IOL power being off, which would have been even more of a problem with a premium IOL, and almost as high a % get problematic halos even with a monofocal lens, many just don't bother commenting since there isn't much they can do then and they didn't go with anything other than the default treament so they don't comment).
Actually the results are very positive. If you google (they moderate links):
"High rates of spectacle independence, patient satisfaction seen with Symfony IOL"
you'll see a summary of the results of the major studies, indicating:
"In the European studies, subjects were asked if they would recommend the lens to a friend. Nearly all (97.9% in the Europe-1 study and 93.7% in the Europe-2 study) said yes."
That is high compared to results I've seen for other IOLs. It also notes:
"Most subjects who reported symptoms rated them as mild or moderate. In the U.S. study, for example, reports of severe visual symptoms were less than 2.8% for halos, none for glare and less than 1.5% for starbursts.
Historically, we have seen that 3% to 5% of patients implanted with monofocal aspheric lenses report glare and halo, so there is only a small increase in these studies. It is important to note that the use of femtosecond laser, manual limbal relaxing incisions, and LASIK or PRK enhancement were all disallowed during the study, so residual sphere or cylinder error may also have contributed to the incidence of visual symptoms"
Unfortunately its true that a minuscule % of people will have problems that leads them to choose a lens exchange. With anything that isn't 100% guaranteed, *someone* winds up being the statistic (and will likely post about it), so unfortunately no one can guarantee you won't be one of those unhappy patients posting afterwards. So when getting any premium lens you do need to be prepared for that possibility. However it is pretty much guaranteed that you will have a lower range of vision in an eye that gets a monofocal rather than the Symfony. In my case the very high odds of more convenient good vision for what might potentially be another few decades was worth the low risk of needing a lens exchange.
My main advice will be to understand the pros and cons of each type of lens and then decide on the compromise which you may be willing to make.
Symfony lens is a good lens, but like many new products, it may have been oversold.
I have a Symfony Toric lens in my right eye for distance and a monofocal lens in my left eye for close-up. With this combination, I have good day vision at all distances beyond 16 inches. However, I wish that my night vision were better, the main issue being the seeing of multiple concentric circles or halos around lights at night time. Many other people seem to have had the same issue. Rather than repeating the details here, I will encourage you to read my post, “Has Any One Else Had This Very Unusual Vision Issue with Symfony Lens?” on this forum. You should be able to find it by clicking on my name and then looking under “Discussion”.
I have had Tecnis Symfony lens put in left and right eye over the past three months. They are still in the healing process. I had a small astigmatism in the left eye... and once the cataract was removed and the eye healed... there was a film that appeared a few weeks following surgery, which caused a bit of blurred vision in my left eye. I went for another post opt today, and my surgeon examined my eye and removed the film with a laser treatment: Posterior Capsulotomy. This was to remove the cellophane like capsule lining that is usually left, and should stay clear, but in my case became cloudy and caused blur. I did not have this with my right eye.
A minor setback, as I love not having to wear glasses any longer. My vision in my right eye is better than 20 20, almost 20 15. My left eye will follow.
When finding a surgeon... having one close to you is important. You may need to make several trips for post opt care, as I have had to do. Well worth it to get a doctor that will keep tweaking your eyes until you get the results you are hoping for. Follow surgeons recommended procedure with eye drops and rest. I am very happy with the care I have been given.
Where did you go for your surgery? How much was the Symfony lens? I live in Michigan and my Dr said $3800 for the lens. I have a standard distance in my left eye. It's just so so but that's because of macular pucker.
My surgeon in the Seattle area was much more reasonable. The extra charge for getting the Symfony Toric lens (beyond the the monofocal lens charges mostly covered by Medicare) were $2200, out of which $900 were passed on to the hospital. In addition, any LASIK enhancement required for vision correction after the cataract surgery was included as a no-cost part of the package.
The $900 passed on to the hospital covered the additional purchase price of the Symfony Toric lens, which was procured by the hospital.
I had both eyes done about three weeks apart, I too live in Michigan and had them done north of Grand Rapids, by Holland Eye. Like most folks... insurance paid for the cataract removal, total out of pocket costs were 5600.00 for the Symfony Tecnis Lens placed in both eyes. That includes any tweaking that needs to be done in post opt appointments. I have at least one more laser treatment to correct a small amount of astigmatism.
Thanks for the quick reply. Ilive closer to Frankenmuth and my surgery will be in Flint. I'm not sure what to do as I had my left eye done 2.5 years ago and they used the lens for seeing distance. My Dr said the cost of the symfony would be 3800 and that's just a bit too much for me. They are talking about doing a lens with intermediate distance for this eye. I have to decide soon as surgery is in a month.
Okay, on reading another message here, Doctor Snyder lets you make payments... each eye is 2800. Your payment would be affordable. Funny, they don't even set a billing date, so far I have sent in a sufficent amount monthly. They do have two types of paying... and they would like it paid within 6 months. There is no pressure whatsoever, and they answer their phone, (no phone tree), Just wonderful people to work with. Do watch the video... it is very interesting.
Irrespective of the surgeon you may end up choosing, the suggestion of using a Symfony lens set for the best focus at the intermediate distance of 32 to 40 inches is a good advice (assuming that you are getting a good distance vision with the left eye). With this combination, you should have good vision at reading, intermediate as well as the far distances without most of the night vision issues associated with the Symfony lens.
I would definitely suggest shopping around since prices for surgery seem to vary dramaticall. You might even considering whether to travel to get the lens if the cost difference is worth it.
Unfortunately I don't know what US prices are like. When I got the Symfony in Dec. 2014 it wasn't approved in the US (or even Canada or Mexico) yet so I had to go to Europe to get it. I'd already been planning to travel to get a trifocal if the US didn't approve one, which they still haven't, and then the Symfony came out and I went for that. I wound up getting the Symfony in the Czech Republic in both eyes for less than my high deductible would have been here, including travel. Depending on whether you want laser surgery (I didn't), or need astigmatism correction (I didn't), its perhaps $1200-$2000/eye at various clinics there total for surgery&lens (I got a discount being the first patient to get it there so it was a bit lower).
I went to the dollar store and bought a pair of readers at +150. I popped out the lens on the left and am going to wear these for a few days to see how I adapt. The nurse told me he was going to use a +150 or 175. I get slightly dizzy if I turn my head too fast. I will see how I do in a few days. Thanks for the advise.
Thanks but circumstances prevent me from traveling to do this. Plus, my insurance will cover the cost of surgery and post op check up and one new pair of glasses, all at no cost to me as I have already paid my deductible by having the vitrectomy and peel done in January.
As I mentioned in another post to you, the test you are doing is actually combining the 2 concerns which I had in one package: the monovision and the double vision due to the different size images due to the different prescriptions for the 2 eyes inglasses. Thus, this is a more difficult combination.for the brain to deal with than what you will have with the monofocal set for reading and the prescription glasses used for distance. Obviously, if this works, that will be great. If it does not and you want to give a more fair test for monovision, you may have to try wearing a soft contact lens of +1.5 in the right eye (unlike glasses, contact lenses don't cause the discrepancy in the image size).
I am not sure what you are trying to tell me. Are you saying my test with the dollar store glasses won't work? I have even thought to try to put on my distance glasses over top of these, but the problem, as I see it, even if I could physically do it, is that the prescription would only be correct for the left eye (the one already operated on) and not necessarily the other eye. So far, about 2 or 3 hours into the test, it seems to be working other than I KNOW I will need distance glasses. I am not sure what you mean by double vision. I am not seeing double, but I suspect that's not exactly what you mean.
If you are doing fine with the modified dollar store reading glasses, that is great! You won't have any problem with the monofocal lens set for near distance in the right eye.
Only if you were not doing fine, I would have said that you should not give up trying a monofocal lens set for near distance in the right eye. Right now, you have a prescription of 1.5D between the left and the right eye, which causes noticable difference in the sizes of images, which the brain receives from the 2 eyes. Some times, the brain can't handle that difference and one may see double vision or just feel that there is something not right with the vision. You won't get a similar change in the the sizes of the images when you get the monofocal lens in the right eye so that it would be a lot easier to deal with. So, if you are doing fine with the modified store glasses, you would be even better with the monofocal lens for reading in the right eye.
Thank you
You were mentioning a cost of $3800 out of pocket extra for the IOL (since insurance doesn't cover premium IOLs), but there are likely other places that'd do it for much less even in the US. Most places usually price their premium IOLs around the same, but your other post suggested the Crystalens was half that at $1900 (making me wonder if they had a glitch and the Symfony price was for 2 eyes)? which is why I figured that if a local place didn't have a better price, if you couild manage to travel within the US you might find a price that is better even including travel costs. But I know not everyone can swing that, or wish to go through the added stress.
I figured most people wouldn't travel out of the country for surgery but mentioned it for anyone reading the thread who might since you can get it done in the Czech Republic from high quality docs for less than that including travel (though perhaps not if you aren't traveling by yourself, I went by myself).
Good point. I guess I should ask why Symfony is so much higher. Didn't think about that. So far, my experiment with the dollar store glasses is working ok