Juvene modular IOL — 36‑month update
- Sumit “Sam” Garg of the University of California, Irvine reported three-year results for LensGen’s Juvene lens at the 2023 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting in San Diego. - In 18 eyes evaluated, Juvene kept distance-corrected vision above 20/40 from about +1.5 to -2.0 diopters, with bilateral patients reaching 20/20 distance, 20/25 intermediate and J3 near. - Juvene is part of a new push toward shape-changing, exchangeable cataract lenses after earlier accommodating designs lost effect over time. (crstoday.com)
A cataract lens designed to change shape inside the eye kept its visual performance through 36 months in early Juvene data presented by Sumit “Sam” Garg in San Diego. (ophthalmologytimes.com) Juvene is made by LensGen and uses two parts: a base lens that sits in the capsular bag and a fluid-filled optic that snaps into it. The idea is to let the eye’s natural focusing muscles alter the front curve of the optic instead of splitting light the way many multifocal lenses do. (clinicaltrials.gov) (crstoday.com) Presbyopia is the age-related loss of near focus, and cataract surgery replaces the eye’s cloudy natural lens with an artificial one. Standard monofocal implants are sharp at one distance, while presbyopia-correcting lenses often trade some image quality for more range. (clinicaltrials.gov) (escrs.org) In the 36-month Juvene update, 18 eyes were evaluated, including 10 eyes in five bilaterally implanted patients. The mean distance-corrected monocular defocus curve stayed above 20/40 from roughly +1.50 to -2.00 diopters, a usable range of about 3.5 diopters. (escrs.org) (crstoday.com) Garg reported monocular mean corrected visual acuity of 20/18 for distance, 20/26 for intermediate and 20/35 for near. In bilateral patients, Ophthalmology Times said the 36-month results were 20/20 at distance, 20/25 at intermediate and J3 or better at near. (crstoday.com) (ophthalmologytimes.com) The longer follow-up is the point of the update. Earlier accommodating lenses often looked promising at first and then lost effect as the capsular bag fibrosed and stiffened over time. (healio.com) (escrs.org) Garg said the range of vision, quality of vision and accommodative amplitude were consistent from year 1 through year 3. He also said endothelial cell loss over three years was comparable to standard cataract surgery. (ophthalmologytimes.com) LensGen said mesopic contrast sensitivity in a six-month sub-study was similar to a high-quality monofocal lens and that all bilateral patients were spectacle-free. The company also said Juvene is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is not for sale or use in the United States. (lensgen.com) Researchers and surgeons are also watching the modular design because, in theory, the fluid optic could be exchanged later while the base lens stays in place. CRSToday described that as a potential route to future upgrades, but the published sources here do not report a large clinical exchange series. (crstoday.com) (healio.com) The catch is that this remains early, noncomparative evidence. ClinicalTrials.gov lists the completed Grail study at 61 enrolled patients, while the three-year visual update reflects a much smaller group because many patients were lost to follow-up. (clinicaltrials.gov) (escrs.org) So the Juvene story at 36 months is not that cataract surgery has been remade overnight. It is that one shape-changing lens has held onto its effect for three years in a small dataset, which is exactly where earlier accommodating designs often ran into trouble. (ophthalmologytimes.com) (escrs.org)
