Text Descriptions of Phakic Intraocular Lens Pictures

Anatomy of the Eye

The first illustration shows an external side view of the eyeball with the parts labeled. The sclera, cornea, iris, pupil, and optic nerve are identified. The second illustration shows an internal side view with the eye cut in half from front to back. The sclera, cornea, anterior chamber, iris, pupil, posterior chamber, natural lens, retina, and optic nerve are identified.

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How Phakic Lenses Work

The illustration shows the side view of eye if it were cut in half from front to back and you were looking at the inside. It shows light rays from a stop sign being focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina of an eye that needs no vision correction. It depicts the clear retinal image of the stop sign being sent to the brain by the optic nerve. When light rays come into focus on the retina, we see the object clearly.

The next frame shows the image of the same stop sign being focused in front of the retina in a nearsighted (myopic) eye. The light rays from the stop sign that fall onto the retina are out of focus creating a blurred image. The illustration depicts the blurred retinal image being sent to the brain by the optic nerve. When light rays do not come into focus on the retina, we see the object as blurred.

The final frame shows the side view of the nearsighted eye cut in half with the phakic lens in the anterior chamber. This illustration depicts idealized results of the phakic lens bending light from the stop sign to redirect the focused image onto the retina. The illustration shows the clear retinal image of the stop sign being sent to the brain by the optic nerve. When light rays are redirected by the phakic lens onto the retina, the nearsighted eye sees distant objects more clearly.

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Placement of Lens

This illustration shows where phakic intraocular lenses are implanted - in the anterior or posterior chamber. The anatomical structures of the eye are identified in an external, front view (what you see when you look at your eye straight on) and a corresponding internal side view (what you would see if you looked at the eye from the side after it had been cut in half from front to back). An incision near the upper, outer edge of the cornea is depicted. The illustration shows an anterior chamber phakic lens entering the anterior chamber of the eye through the incision. Next, the illustration depicts a similar incision in another eye. It shows a posterior chamber phakic lens entering the anterior chamber through the incision and then entering the posterior chamber through the pupil.

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Center for Devices and Radiological Health / CDRH