Surgically implanted intraocular multifocal lenses originally designed to provide functional visual acuity for patients treated for cataracts are now available for people wishing to reduce their need for bifocals. The phaser procedure is performed in an outpatient sterile operating room where the natural lens, whether it has cataract change, haze, or is reasonably clear, is removed and in its place a replacement lens is inserted. The replacement lens has focusing zones for distance viewing, reading viewing, and intermediate viewing. The power of the replacement lens is calculated based on one's unique eye curvature and lens.
Vision improves within days and better results are realized after the second eye is treated.
Recovery time for this procedure is generally less than that required from laser vision correction. D istinct from monovision, in which one eye receives distance vision and the other eye reading vision, with phaser correction, both eyes are targeted for functional, distance and near vision without the use of glasses. A potential side effect of this treatment may be reduction in contrast vision requiring brighter light for comfortable reading vision. Other side effects such as halos in dim light generally dissipate over time. Preoperatively, ultrasound is used to accurately measure the eye and determine the effective lens replacement power.