ICL Used to Treat Amblyopia in Children

An interesting story appears in today's AP:  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jXQ218BrFxC7f0EmbcsOspUS08IwD92BOA0O0.  A 7 year old girl was treated with an Implantable Colamer Lens (ICL) to correct her severe nearsightedness in 1 eye to control her amblyopia (lazy eye).  Apparently, she was so nearsighted that she could not be treated with spectacles or a contacl lens.  She was not a good LASIK candidate because of thin corneas.  This was an off-label use of the ICL, since the patient was under the FDA mandated age requirement of 21.

The Visian ICL is made by Staar surgical, and is an excellant lens for the treatment of moderate to severe nearsightedness in those patients who are not a good candidate for corneal refractive surgery.  This lens is implanted in the eye, in the pupil between the iris and one's natural lens.  We have been using this lens since its FDA approval 2 years ago and have had excellant results!