The first technology to treat the intolerance of newly implanted patients with multifocal intraocular lens has been created by Spanish researchers. The team is made up of Dr. Piñero, a specialist in Optics and Optometry from the University of Alicante, the ophthalmologist Miguel Maldonado from the University of Valladolid and the doctor in Vision Sciences Begoña Coco, a specialist in visual rehabilitation from the University of Valladolid.
In Spain, 350,000 cataract interventions are performed per year, reaching 3.6 million in the United States and 20 million worldwide. A routine and rapid surgical intervention that can effectively restore this visual impairment.
However, in some cases there are visual disturbances such as glare, loss of ability to see contrasts or perception of halos, mainly after the implantation of multifocal intraocular lenses, which can hinder activities such as night driving, and which in many cases are reduced or disappear in the postoperative period thanks to the neuroadaptation. The problem resides in those cases in which visual discomfort persists and makes the patient’s day-to-day difficult.
It is estimated that between 6 and 7% of patients do not tolerate the visual discomfort associated with the multifocal intraocular lens implant, since it maintains a pattern of effort for processing the visual information received, which can condition the functional activity of certain brain areas, which implies that persistent visual disturbances appear.
For this reason and thanks to the OpticTrain technology, visual rehabilitation can be facilitated at all distances, avoiding intolerance to multifocality and minimizing potential vision problems. vision qualitywhich in the most severe cases can lead to the explant of multifocal lenses, with the costs associated with the intervention and the risk of a second intraocular surgery.
OpticTrain acts by developing the necessary stimuli to facilitate the neuroadaptation after surgery with multifocal lens implant. The software is based on a gamified, entertaining and attractive system for patients, which uses Gabor sinusoidal networks, an eye tracker system -eye tracking-, and a series of stimuli that motivate attention and other skills.
clinical evaluations
OpticTrain reaches the market after different clinical evaluations that confirm the usefulness of this new program in patients implanted with trifocal diffractive intraocular lenses. Among them, a blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial stands out. It evaluated the potential benefit on visual performance of the novel OpticTrain three-week visual rehabilitation program in patients undergoing bilateral cataract surgery with implantation of two models of trifocal diffractive intraocular lenses (IOLs).
This system has been validated in a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial in which a total of 60 subjects implanted with trifocal multifocal lenses in two national ophthalmological centers, the Vithas Medimar Hospital in Alicante and the IOBA of the University of Valladolid. Of these patients, a total of 31 subjects were stimulated with the OpticTrain system, while 29 were stimulated with software without specific stimulation (placebo).
The study was double blind; neither the patients nor the examiners knew whether they belonged to the OpticTrain or placebo group. The brain activity of a subgroup of patients was analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after treatment by researchers from the Clinical Neurosciences Group of the University of Valladolid.
The results show significant differences between the OpticTrain and Placebo groups in terms of sensitivity to distance contrast, showing a greater ability to detect contrasts between objects in those patients treated with the OpticTrain system. Likewise, there was an improvement in visual acuity in intermediate vision only in the OpticTrain group.
Also only in this group was there a significant change in the level of patient-perceived discomfort in a variety of visual symptoms, such as glare, visual fluctuation and distortion. Finally, in the subgroup analyzed by MRI, it was possible to verify the expected neural changes associated with neuroadaptation, as well as an increase in functional connectivity in patients treated with OpticTrain.
