Introduction: There are several surgical options available for the correction of aphakia. We investigated if retropupillary fixation of an iris claw lens is a method combining the advantages of posterior chamber implants with a new low-risk method of intervention.
Patients and methods: An iris claw lens was implanted in 48 eyes in the plano-convex direction (model 205 Y). For the calculation of the IOL power we estimated an A-constant of 116.8. The lens was pushed via a 5-mm wide corneal incision vertically in the anterior chamber and was fixed in the retropupillary position after turning in the horizontal direction. After aspiration of the viscoelastica the corneal incision was closed by a 10-0 nylon suture.
Results: The implantation was successful in all patients. A visual improvement was noted in 27 patients (56.2%), an unchanged visual acuity was seen in 18 patients (37.5%) while 3 patients (6.2%) showed a loss of visual acuity. A cystoid macular edema was found by fluorescein angiography in two cases. Leakages in the area of the enclavation were not seen.
Summary: The retropupillary fixation of an iris claw lens seems to have the advantages of a true posterior chamber implantation with a low intra- and postoperative risk profile. The easy implantation process with this technique could replace the normally applied sclera suture fixed implantation of a posterior chamber lens as the method of choice.