Seeing Clearly with an Iris Implant
Melissa Medley: It’s construction manager Don Davis’s job to focus on the
details. But for the past 30 years, that’s been hard. He’s missing
part of his right eye, damaged by a direct hit from a racquetball
Don Davis: One of the things that happened during the trauma was that I
lost my iris. The iris for whatever reason drew back and at the
time, it was one large black pupil.
Dr. Amit Chokshi: The iris is what makes a pupil smaller and larger. So it acts like
the shutter for the eye.
Melissa Medley: Everything Don saw had a glare, halo around it or he saw
double, sunglasses and colored contact lenses weren’t enough.
Don Davis: If you can imagine someone taking a flashlight and just turn it
on and stick it around your eye, and you get a kind of sense of
that. It was that -- all the time.
Melissa Medley: Doctor suggested an artificial iris.
Dr. Amit Chokshi: It’s about 9 millimeters in width and only four millimeters it
actually allows light to get in. So less than 50% of the device
let’s light in.
Melissa Medley: This prosthetic iris is custom-colored match to the patient’s
healthy eye. In surgery, it’s implanted doing 9 millimeter-
incision between the white of the eye and the cornea. In Don’s
case, a lens was added to improve his vision.
Don Davis: The sun is much better as you can imagine. It’s not nearly
blinding as it was.
Melissa Medley: With iris implant, providing an extra layer of protection, Don
seeing his world in a whole new light. I'm Melissa Medley
reporting.
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