You Can Have A Natural Looking Prosthetic Eye!

The search for a more natural prosthetic eye continues but there has been an important breakthrough in this field.  The purpose of an anophthalmic socket implant is to mimic the movement of the natural eye and give it the look of normalcy.  The best implant would be able to have enough orbital volume to make up for the empty socket, minimal chance for infection and small protrusion or recession in the face. 

New progress has been made in this area with a new high-density porous polyethylene with a brand name of Medpor.  This new material resists infection, promotes tissue growth, and nonantigenic.  One other important fact is this new material allows sutures to pass through it.  It has been used successfully as an implant in anophthalmic socket surgery. 

New research has been centered on the new porous materials that allow tissue growth, which means the transplant, will last longer and reduce the chance of needing replacement.  The perfect implant would be an implant that reduces infection, has little or no inflammation, and be moldable without extreme rigidity.  Not only would the perfect implant meet all of these requirements it should be easy to make and the costs should be reasonable.  Does that sound impossible?  Research and new technology makes this more probable every day. 

Patients who have received implants of this new porous material experienced great benefits and studies continue to see which of the new materials found are most acceptable as an eye implant. 

The early study included twenty-one patients who received high-density porous polyethylene implants.  Follow up on these patients continued for nineteen months and results were positive in most patients.  One patient needed the implant removed after four months because of inadequate placement and deformity issues from the trauma to his eye socket.  The removed implant was examined and the surgeons and scientists did not find any infection after being implanted for over four months.  Another implant was performed successfully on this patient.  All other patients reported good results with the porous polyethylene implants.  Patients did not experience any unusual extrusions, infections or other inflammation. 

First reports on this new implant material have been positive.  It had a high success rate in its initial clinical trial and mimics as close as possible the other natural eye.  Advantages of this material over others previously used are that it is less expensive to make and looks more natural.  Research is continuing to decide if this implant can be used with an ocular prosthesis to further improve the cosmetic look and movement of the implanted eye.

If you or a loved one faces possible eye removal and are looking for the best implant, they may want to ask their surgeon about this new material.  As research goes on and new improvements are made, this new material is expected to play an important role in all future anophthalmic socket implants.  Scientists believe the era of the “glass eye” is now over.  Patients now have the choice of the most natural looking eye implant available.