Patent ID: 7220279

Claim:
An accommodating lens assembly having an optical axis that corresponds with the visual axis of a human eye, said lens assembly adapted to be implanted in a posterior chamber of an eye that includes a ciliary sulcus and a capsular unit with a collapsed natural lens capsule located therein, the assembly adapted to be anchored to the interior surface of the eye wall at the ciliary sulcus and located outside the capsular unit in front of the posterior capsule, the assembly comprising: a substantially rigid haptics element adapted to be anchored to the interior surface of the eye wall at the ciliary sulcus, said haptics element defining a plane that intersects the visual axis of the eye, said haptics element securing said accommodating lens assembly within said posterior chamber outside said collapsed natural lens capsule, the haptics element allowing light to be transmitted therethrough at least in a region around said optical axis; a lens structure that includes at least a resilient lens body, said structure located at least partially along the visual axis, between the haptics element and the posterior capsule, the lens structure and haptics element being adapted to be positioned in the posterior chamber so that when the haptics element is anchored to the eye wall at the ciliary sulcus the collapsed natural lens capsule will be prestressed and deform the lens body relative to and substantially independently of the haptics element in relation to the force the capsular unit applies directly or indirectly to the lens body along the optical axis.