For Bonnie, only adjustability will do
At 64 years old, Bonnie Whitman is glasses-free — an especially noteworthy milestone for a woman who’s been wearing corrective lenses since grade school.
“I still look for my glasses in the morning before I realize I can see everything without them,” she says.
While that’s an experience shared by a growing number of post-op cataract patients, Bonnie was one of the rare people who already knew that being glasses free was possible. Her surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Whitman, is also her husband, and while she hasn’t seen cataract lens technology develop as in-depthly as he has, she was more than savvy enough to know that cataract surgery is no longer the perfunctory procedure it once was. Now, it’s an opportunity for truly custom vision — particularly with the Light Adjustable Lens™ (LAL®) from RxSight®.
Bonnie had a minor amount of astigmatism that appeared fairly symmetric.
Dr. Whitman, an experienced surgeon-owner at Key-Whitman Eye Center in Dallas, Texas, began thinking about the LAL for Bonnie as soon as her cataracts were identified. “We had the chance to give her custom vision — and we were going to take it,” he says.
Dr. Whitman implanted Bonnie’s LALs in January. She then had three light adjustments plus her lock-in. Bonnie had the usual topographies and, as expected, drifted hyperopic. “Some patients can change bizarrely — don’t panic! It settles to normal and that’s why the LAL is such great technology,” advises Dr. Whitman.
Post-surgery, Bonnie is pleased with her results — particularly for reading — and, even though she’s long past her final lock-in and no longer needs them to protect her new lens, Bonnie now uses her LAL glasses as sunglasses during her weekly tennis matches. As for Dr. Whitman, he’s come to see the LAL as a way to make surgery easier on surgeons. “Many patients don’t actually know what they want right away. And how could they? They’re trying to decide while they still have cataracts and without the benefit of time.”
The couple jokingly reports that, thanks to the LAL, they’re still happily married after 42 years.
“Many patients don’t actually know what they want right away. And how could they? They’re trying to decide while they still have cataracts and without the benefit of time.”
Jeffrey Whitman, MD
Case Study
Patient Profile
64-year-old female
OD dominant
Surgical Plan
Cataract extraction with LAL OU 1 week apart. Target OU -1.00 OU using Holladay II formula.
| OD | OS | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-op | UCDVA | 20/40 -1 | 20/40 +1 |
| UCNVA | J6 | J8 | |
| MR | +1.00 + 1.00 x 13 = 20/25 -2 | +1.00 + 1.00 x 30 = 20/25 | |
| Post-op before LDD treatments | MR | -1.00 + 1.2 x 15 = 20 -2 | -1.50 + 1.00 x 25 = 20/20 -2 |
OD Post-op after LDD Lock-in
plano sphere
20/20
and J1 uncorrected
OS Post-op after LDD Lock-in
-.50 sphere
20/20
and J1+ uncorrected