Eyeworld

DECEMBER 2023 | EYEWORLD | 45 R LESSONS LEARNED by Ellen Stodola Editorial Co-Director About the physicians Arjan Hura, MD Maloney-Shamie Vision Institute Los Angeles, California Amy Lin, MD Associate Professor of Ophthalmology John A. Moran Eye Center University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah Gregory Parkhurst, MD Parkhurst NuVision San Antonio, Texas myopia who are not candidates for LASIK or PRK due to thin corneas. "It's great to be able to offer something for those patients instead of telling them they're not candidates for laser vision correction," she said. As far as who to present it to, Dr. Parkhurst separates this into categories. The first, he said, are the lowest hanging fruit, or patients who come in seeking refractive surgery, and for one reason or another, they aren't suitable candi- dates for laser vision correction. This could be because the magnitude of their myopia is very high, the cornea is very thin, or there's something abnormal about the cornea, he said. "Those are the candidates in whom you can de- liver the outcome the patient is seeking, which is to see without glasses or contacts, but we're doing so in a way that doesn't touch the cornea and doesn't increase ectasia risk." M any surgeons have now gained experience with the EVO ICL (STAAR Surgical), which was FDA approved in April 2022. Several spoke to EyeWorld about what they've learned from using it in practice. Many physicians were using ICLs as a re- source prior to the EVO ICL's approval. Gregory Parkhurst, MD, has been a long-time ICL user, so he's familiar with the platform. "Using the ICL as an important part of our refractive surgery offerings isn't a new thing for us," he said. "But when I speak to colleagues and peers, a lot are starting to try the ICL again now that the EVO ICL has been approved. Maybe they tried it years ago and stopped, and now they're taking a second look. In our case, it's the next modifica- tion of a platform that we've been using all this time." While Dr. Parkhurst didn't notice any major changes when the EVO ICL got approved, he did say that he was surprised at how much growth his practice has seen in ICL use since the approval. "I expected we might see a few more patients who qualified for it than who had qualified before, but I didn't expect it to have the dramatic impact that we've seen," he said. "More patients are asking about it, more are getting referred for it," he said, adding that effi- ciencies on the operational side are also making it easier to get a patient through the process. Arjan Hura, MD, is a refractive surgeon at the Maloney-Shamie Vision Institute and said that he utilizes the EVO ICL on an almost weekly basis, and like Dr. Parkhurst, his practice has seen a dramatic increase in volume since the approval of the EVO ICL. Similar to other refractive surgeons, prior to the FDA approval, he was routinely implanting ICLs with his first experience in his refractive surgery fellowship in Cleveland, Ohio. Amy Lin, MD, said she has also used ICLs for years. "I didn't change anything that I was doing as far as marketing more because I was already doing ICLs," she said. "But I did find that because of the launch of the EVO ICL, there was more press about it, so I had more patients coming in asking about it." Dr. Lin thinks the EVO ICL is a great option for high myopes and those with moderate Expanding experience with the EVO ICL continued on page 46 Dr. Hura performs ICL surgery using a 3D heads-up visualization display in the OR. Source: Arjan Hura, MD

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