BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The embodiments herein generally relate to an ophthalmic surgical implant used during cataract and other posterior segment surgeries.

Description of the Related Art

Natural lens in eye is a transparent convex lens which is enclosed in a thin bag called as capsular bag. When this clear lens starts to get cloudy or opaque, it's called cataract. Once cataract develops and causes significant blurring of vision, surgical removal of this opaque lens (cataract) is the only way to improve vision. Cataract surgery includes removal of opaque lens and placing an Artificial Intra-Ocular Lens (herein after referred to as AIOL) in the capsular bag from where the cataract has been removed. Capsular bag which encloses the natural lens is a very delicate bag like structure which is suspended in vertical position with the help of strings called zonules. (Trampolin like structure).

Being very delicate it is very common to get damaged during surgery or during eye injuries or other eye diseases. When such damage occurs (e.g. posterior capsule tear, zonular dialysis (breakage of zonules), whole bag dehiscence), it's very difficult to place an AIOL in such bags. Weak capsular bags may not support the AIOL in proper position. AIOL may get decentred or it can drop into the vitreous. In such cases surgeon has to make a choice to either place the AIOL on other supports like ciliary sulcus or scleral fixation or leave the patient aphakic (no placing the AIOL in that sitting)

Such situations are very stressful to the surgeon and to the patient. Placing AIOL in ciliary sulcus fixation or scleral fixation need different kind of AIOL, sutures, equipments and most importantly surgical expertise which may not be available with the surgeon. Leaving the patient aphakic is again a trauma for the patient as well as for the surgeon.

Accordingly there remains a long felt need to provide a solution in such situations, which is unequivocally efficient and effective for alleviating Surgeon's stress and completing the surgery with successful implantation of AIOL.

To bail the surgeon and the patient out of such complication is the present implant invented.

SUMMARY

Present invention provides an Intra-ocular implant to hold an AIOL in patient's eye. It comprises mainly a central bag like structure called optic and the peripheral supporting structures called haptics. The haptics are joined to the optic at Optic-Haptic Junctions.

The optic resembles to a bag having two distinct circular surfaces joined together at their periphery creating a hollow inner space to accommodate an AIOL; and anterior one of the said two surfaces has a central orifice of sufficient diameter for insertion and holding of AIOL in the inner hollow space of optic. Owing to technological advancement AIOL is usually inserted in patient's eye in its folded form by an injector which thereafter unfold itself by expanding in circular dimension to take its intended circular shape. However, the rigid AIOL can also be manoeuvred inside the hollow space by adopting the stretchable material for building the optic. The dimeter of central orifice may be suitably adapted to accommodate entrance of such an injector inside the hollow inner space for placing AIOL and immediately thereafter to hold the unfolded AIOL in proper position within an eye.

This intra-ocular implant is injected by the surgeon in patient's eye where the natural capsular bag is torn/ruptured or is absent. The haptics of the intra-ocular implant sit snugly in the ciliary sulcus and the hollow inner space of optic provides bag like space to implant the planned AIOL. The AIOL is inserted into the inner hallow space of the intra-ocular implant through the central orifice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye under routine surgery wherein the cataractous lens is removed from natural capsular bag;

FIGURE 2 illustrates an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye under routine surgery wherein an AIOL is placed in natural capsular bag;

FIGURE 3 illustrates an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye wherein the natural capsular bag is torn /ruptured; FIGURE 4 illustrates an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye wherein the natural capsular bag is totally absent;

FIGURE 5 illustrates a side view of Intra-ocular implant of the present invention;

FIGURE 6 illustrates an anterior view of Intra-ocular implant of the present invention;

FIGURE 7 illustrates the general dimensions of an intra-ocular implant for ordinary human eye;

FIGURE 8 illustrates variety of intra-ocular implants;

FIGURES 9 and 10 illustrate the anterior cross-sectional views of patient eyes under routine surgery when placed with the intra ocular implants of the present invention;

FIGURES 11 and 12 illustrate the anterior cross-sectional views of patient eyes wherein the AIOLs are placed in the intra ocular implants of figure 9 and figure 10 respectively DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODF ENTS

As mentioned, there remains a long felt need to provide a solution in such situations, which is unequivocally efficient and effective for alleviating surgeon's stress and completing the surgery with successful implantation of AIOL. The present embodiment tries to address this long felt need. The present embodiment herein provides an Intra-ocular implant which holds the AIOL when capsular bag is weak or absent. The haptics of the implant sit snugly in the ciliary sulcus and the hollow optic part provides bag like space to implant the planned AIOL. A patient herein include humans and animals who undergoes cataract surgery. An eye of a human patient is described in figures for explaining the relevant eye components, the difficulties in cataract surgery and the positioning of Intra-ocular implant in patient eye during surgery. Referring now to the figures, more particularly to Figures 5 to 12, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, preferred embodiments are shown.

Referring to Figure 1, an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye under routine surgery wherein the cataractous lens is removed from natural capsular bag is illustrated. The positions of three major components of the eye i.e. the sulcus (1), the natural capsular bag (2) and the cornea (3) are demonstrated in this figure. Figure 2 illustrates an anterior cross-sectional view of a patient eye after placing AIOL (4) in place of removed cataractous lens.

Figures 3 and 4 illustrates the eye wherein the natural capsular bag is torn/ruptured or is totally absent/damaged (aphakia). In such situations it is extremely difficult and in aphakia like conditions it is almost impossible for a surgeon to place AIOL (4) in the eye as there is no internal support to hold it in proper position.

In Figure 5, an Intra-ocular implant (5) is represented in its preferred embodiment. It comprises mainly a central bag like structure optic (5a) and the peripheral supporting structures haptics (5b). The haptics (5b) are joined to the optic (5a) at Optic-Haptic Junctions (5c). The optic (5a) resembles to a bag having two distinct circular surfaces joined together at their periphery creating a hollow inner space to accommodate an AIOL (4); and anterior one of the said two surfaces has a central orifice (5e) of sufficient diameter for insertion and holding of AIOL (4) in the inner hollow space of optic (5). Owing to technological advancement AIOL (4) is usually inserted in patient's eye in its folded form by an injector which thereafter unfold itself by expanding in circular dimension to take its intended circular shape. The dimeter of central orifice (5e) may be suitably adapted to accommodate entrance of such an injector inside the hollow inner space for placing AIOL (4). The rigid AIOLs can also be manoeuvred inside the hollow space by adopting the stretchable material for building the optic (5a) which expands and shrink back upon putting and releasing pressure. The haptics (5b) are joined by the optic (5a) by adapting any technology to secure the joints for example one that used in multi-piece AIOLs. The haptics (5b) are joined to optic (5a) at a suitable angle so that the optic remains suspended in the plane of natural capsular bag (2) without touching the iris. The haptics (5b) may further include eyelets (5d) at end to facilitate implantation as illustrated in figure 6. This intra-ocular implant is injected by the surgeon in patient's eye where the natural capsular bag (2) is torn /ruptured or is absent as illustrated in figure 3 and 4 respectively. The haptics (5b) of the intra-ocular implant (5) sit snugly in the ciliary sulcus (1) and the hollow inner space of optic (5a) provides bag like space to implant the planned AIOL (4). The folded AIOL (4) is inserted into the inner hallow space of the intra-ocular implant (5) through the central orifice (5e) which thereafter get unfolded by expanding in circular dimension to take its intended circular shape. Alternatively the rigid AIOL (4) is placed inside the hollow space with forceps by stretching the central orifice (5e) sufficiently which again shrink back to its original dimensions. Various dimensions and variety of Intra-ocular implants (5) may be adapted as per the patient eye-size and need.

Figure 7 refers to an example embodiment in which the general dimensions of an intra- ocular implant (5) for ordinary human eye are illustrated. For ordinary human eye the optic orifice dimeter (5f), the circular surfaces diameter (5g) of optic and the intraocular implant's overall length measured from haptic ends (5h) may be adapted to be 4-6 mm, 8-12 mm and 13-17 mm respectively. Figure 8 refers to an examples embodiments in which the variety of intra-ocular implants are illustrated. In one example the optic (5a) comprises such an arrangement in which the peripheries of the two distinct circular surfaces of optic are held at a uniform distance from each other. This may be achieved by joining the peripheries of two distinct circular surfaces of optic (5a) with a common strip like structure. Ideally this strip like structure has uniform thickness and made from the same material that is used for making the circular surfaces. In another example the optic (5a') comprises another arrangement in which the two distinct circular surfaces of the optic (5a') are directly joined together at their periphery without using any strip like structure. Any of these arrangements for optic (5a) or (5a') may be manufactured in step wise manner. Alternatively, instead of joining two separate surfaces these arrangements may also be created by moulding the unitary continuous pieces of material to get the desired arrangement. In yet another example the intra-ocular implant comprising either of the optic arrangement selected from (5a) and (5a') and the haptics that may be plain (5b) or may have notches (5b'). In yet another example, as shown in figures 13 and 14, the ends of the haptics are provided with an angle for their better fixation in ciliary sulcus especially in cases of total loss of capsular bag. In other exemplary embodiments, the optic (5a) and haptics (5b) are made up of bio compatible materials. This material choice for optic varies amongst hydrophilic materials, hydrophobic materials and any combination thereof which provide foldability, mouldability and compatibility with respect to AIOL; sustain and withstand joints with haptics; having non-inflammatory nature and provide optical clarity for good vision. Such preferable materials for optic include hydrophobic acrylic materials. On the other hand, material choice for haptics varies amongst hydrophilic materials, hydrophobic materials and any combination thereof which provide foldability, mouldability and compatibility with respect to ocular tissues like ciliary sulcus and iris; provide good strength to hold optic at its intended position; sustain and withstand joints with optic; and having non-inflammatory nature. Such preferable materials for haptics (5b) include poly methyl methacrylate, prolene, nylon and any combination thereof. Yet other materials, depending on their suitability may be adapted for making optic (5a) and haptics (5b). At least two haptics (5b) are used for fixation of the intra ocular implant in the patient's eye, however more than two haptics (5b) may also be adopted for better fixation of the intra-ocular implant (5) in the patient's eye. The central circular part (preferably of 3 to 4 mm diameter) of the posterior circular surface of optic (5a) may be made up of bio-absorbable clear material so that this central part gets absorbed over period making the centre of the optics clearer and provides sharper vision over the time. The complete implant is flexible in such a way that it is compressed or folded into a cartridge, injected through an injector from an incision of around 2 to 3 mm and it attains its original shape and size once decompressed or unfolded. Instead of manual loading of injecting system with intraocular implant (5) the pre-loaded injecting system may preferably be adopted, as that of used in Malyugin pupil dilating device.

Figures 9 and 10 illustrate the anterior cross-sectional views of patient eyes implanted with intra-ocular implant (5) of the present invention wherein the natural capsular bag (2) is either torn/ruptured or is absent.

Figures 11 and 12 illustrate the anterior cross-sectional views of patient eyes wherein the AIOLs (4) are placed in the intra ocular implants (5) of figure 9 and figure 10 respectively.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope.