The new RayOne enhanced monovision IOL with positive spherical aberration

The much-anticipated RayOne enhanced monovision (EMV) intraocular lens (IOL) and its latest toric iteration have been launched in New Zealand. Welcoming the move as one of the first surgeons to implant the Rayner IOL in New Zealand, refractive surgeon Dr Dean Corbett said it’s ‘likely to be a game changer’. The RayOne EMV is an exciting development in the race to provide the best spectacle freedom you can for patients, said Auckland and Queenstown-based Dr Corbett. “The landscape of lens replacement surgery in the context of improving quality of life is continuing to evolve and this is another option we can now offer patients.”

The RayOne EMV is like the Tecnis Eyhance IOL, launched in 2019 by Johnson & Johnson and embraced by most refractive surgeons, but ‘on steroids’, he said, allowing patients to have even better intermediate vision than with a monofocal. “They can walk more safely, their footfall distance is more clear and… they can see more clearly than with a monofocal lens, so they are less likely to need bifocal glasses.”

Dr Corbett acknowledged there’s currently a manufacturing race on to provide the best affordable IOL for patients – one which minimises unwanted visual phenomena, such as glare, halos and starbursts, while maximising a patient’s range of spectacle-free vision. “There have been a lot of improvements in technology and now it’s all coming together in a rush – we can have our cake and eat it too.”

Developed in collaboration with well-known Australia-based refractive surgeon Professor Graham Barrett, the RayOne family of IOLs will be distributed by Medix21. The company's surgical sales director Camille Furnandiz said she’s thrilled to finally bring them to New Zealand. “They have the same formula constants across the whole range, making it simple to choose the appropriate lens for the patient from the biometry.” The RayOne EMV is an extended depth of focus (EDOF) IOL that provides up to 1.5D of continuous vision when aiming for emmetropia with the same dysphotopsia profile as a monofocal, she said. “The exciting part of this IOL is it’s designed to enhance monovision, providing up to 2.5D of extended depth of vision with a 1.0D offset. It has a reduced sensitivity to centration, pupil size and tilt, so it is more forgiving than other EDOF IOLs currently on the market. Plus the steam-sterilised, pre-loaded injector, which won a Queen's award for innovation in 2020, provides a smooth, consistent rolling and delivery of the lens across the whole RayOne IOL family.”

Though he’s only in the early stages of evaluating the RayOne EMV, given the response overseas and his knowledge in this area, Dr Corbett said he believes it’s likely to be a game changer. “Essentially, 80% of my work is not dealing with people who have what you’d call cataracts – it’s actually dealing with people who want to see better. When I say, ‘see better’, I actually mean ‘function better’, so they don't need glasses at all. The trouble is there is no best product – it’s not like putting in a hip joint; vision is very, very different. So when people choose a product to go in their eye, they need very good education… and the Eyhance and the EMV give a much better blend of visual range, so it's basically improving the choices we have to deliver better visual outcomes for patients without the downsides. It’s very exciting.”