Carrollwood's Newsom Eye Needs Patients For Study

CARROLLWOOD, FL — On June 23, Dr. T. Hunter Newsom and the Newsom Eye team implanted the first FDA-approved vivity intraocular lens (IOL) in the United States.

The vivity IOL is implanted immediately after cataract removal during cataract surgery. With an excellent outcome from the first surgery, the patient's second eye also received a vivity intraocular lens following removal of the patient's cataract on July 7.

The vivity IOL is a new, non-diffractive extended depth of focus IOL which helps a patient to see at both distance and near without glasses. Newsom and his supporting staff were involved as a principal investigator during the FDA trial of this technology.

"Our patient has recovered from surgery quickly and is seeing well at both distance and near without glasses," said Newsom.

The patient said she “could not believe how well she could read without glasses” just days after her first surgery.

"The benefits of the vivity IOL is that the lens does not cause rings and halos at night like other diffractive or multifocal IOLs that we currently implant to focus for distance and near vision," Newsom said. "We have implanted the vivity IOL into a long-distance truck driver and the vivity lens has provided excellent nighttime distance vision for him as well as the ability to read all his gauges on the dashboard without glasses.”

Newsom is currently enrolling patients in a second study using the vivity IOL technology. If you have cataracts and are interested in this study or any other surgical options, contact the refractive coordinator at 813-908-2020, ext. 235, or a.bartley@newsomeye.net.

Newsom is a board-certified cataract and refractive surgeon and the founder and medical director at Newsom Eye. He is a principal investigator of FDA clinical studies and is the inventor of the Newsom Bladeless Laser Cataract Surgery Technique, which allowed for and modified the use of the IntraLase™ Femtosecond Laser in cataract surgery.

Newsom developed a technique and helped design a device that made it possible to use the femtosecond laser, originally meant for LASIK surgery, in cataract surgery as well.

Newsom is also one of two surgeons to be awarded the national designation of Surgical Excellence from the American College of Eye Surgeons for cataract and implant surgery.

Additionally, he was one of the first surgeons to use the Visian™ and Verisyse™ intraocular lenses in surgical procedures.

This press release was produced by the Carrollwood Area Business Association. The views expressed here are the author’s own.