All patients had cataract surgery on both eyes, and they had similar lenses in both eyes. Three months after surgery, patients with multifocals had better average near vision than the group with conventional lenses. The patients' average corrected distance vision was better for the multifocal lenses as well. On a scale of 0 to 10, with a best possible score of 10, patients with multifocal implants gave their uncorrected vision a score of 8.4, compared to 7.9 for patients with conventional lenses. However, patients with multifocals were more likely to report annoying visual disturbances that can interfere with night driving, such as haloes and glare from headlights.
Experts have diverse opinions on how much an advancement the multifocal implant is.
They're not for everybody. The eye in general can only focus in one plane. Stark, who was not involved in the current research, is a professor of ophthalmology and director of cornea and cataract services at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The one issue is nighttime driving and haloes. Antiglare driving glasses can help minimize this problem.