It remains to wait a short time: replacing the contents of the lens with a polymer soft gel will allow millions of people to drop their reading glasses, according to the Internet edition for girls and women from 14 to 35 years old Pannochka. Net Initially, a team of researchers from the Australian International Center for Joint Research on Visual Problems decided that this method could be seen as a further improvement in the cataract surgery. But, convinced of its effectiveness and safety, I found that it can be recommended to younger people who felt the need for reading glasses. With age, the ability of the lens to change its shape - "accommodation" - decreases. After 45 most people start to need glasses for reading or bifocals. In the late 80's Jean-Marie Parel of the University of Miami showed that replacing the contents of the lens of the old Rhus macaque with silicone, you can restore its ability to focus on distant objects.

But the silicone came out of the capsule of the lens, so work began on the creation of such a polymer, which has the same refractive index as the lens, and the corresponding biomechanical properties. And such a formula is found: after "pumping" in the lens fluid under the influence of daylight or ultraviolet radiation turns into a gel. Several tests on human eyes demonstrated accommodation from 6 to 8.5 diopters, which is more than enough to read. Gel implantation is similar to cataract surgery, but without lens removal. Instead, the surgeons make a small incision in the cornea, then a tiny hole in the lens, through which its contents are removed, and then inject a gel that, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation or daylight, changes its consistency to a gelatinous. This 15-minute operation was performed on rabbits. Since their lenses are not capable of accommodation, the next step will be to perform operations on Rh-macaques, whose eyes are similar to human. At the end of next year, clinical trials in humans will begin. If everything goes well, then this will be a breakthrough in the ophthalmology of medicus. En.

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