I am aphakic will a contact lense help?

[Potter86]

So i lost my natural lense 5 years ago after an accident i had a corneal graft and that failed do to trauma,i had a regraft 9 months ago everything is fine but they didnt want to do a lense transplant as they thought the less things going on in the eye the less chance od it rejecting.My question is that eye is very very blurry is this normal?and when i get sceral contact lense fitted should this restore good vision?thankyou

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

If your other eye is normal with the nature lens it is called 'phakic" having a lens. Your injured eye is 'aphakic" or no lens. The vision will be blurry  without thick 'aphakic' glasses or contact lens or having an IOL put in later. (that is called pseudophakia or false lens)    Aphakic glasses will not match up with your uninjured phakic eye. So you would need contacts and glasses over the top to get best possible vision while still letting the eyes work together. If you do not wear a contact lens there is a risk that over a year or two your eyes could slip out of line and not be straight and remain that way. Discuss with your surgeons and move forward with a plan.

[Potter86]

Thanks for the reply the plan is to get a contact fitted on my aphakic eye i was just wondering if good vision can be restored with a contact lense

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

No way i can tell that. They should have tested your eyes at some point either real quick by looking through a "pinhole" device or doing a glasses test that used thick aphakic glasses. Ask your eye MD what your "best corrected vision" e.g. 20/20  great or 20/400 bad is. He/she should know that.

[Potter86]

Hi john,my vision improves in the pinhole test but not great...does this mean even if i have a contact lense on the eye vision will not be great?does a pinhole test show the best vision i can get?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

A 'pinhole test" is used to try and distinguish between vision reduced due to disease (which does not improve with pin hole) and that which is reduced due to needing glasses or contact lens (which usually does improve with pin hole test).  There are a few exceptions like certain types of cataracts that improve with pinhole.