TOPIC: Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE)

Peter Renwick wrote: My eyes are constantly dry and i have to put drops in 4/5 time a day

Luxury! How about 40-50 times a day

Julian Stevens

Totally agree with everything said here. From my experiences of living with RLE Oculentis Mplus 1.5 since March 2012 from being -11 dioptres in each eye, then 1 year later a left YAG and a right -0.5 distance correction via Lasek all at Moorfields private clinic. The brain from birth processes only monofocal images not simultaneous vision. Huge change to rewiring the visual cortex. My brain is still learning and now I am 58.
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admin: Who was your surgeon

I got both my eyes done on Feb 2015 and my eyes have never been the same since.
My eyes are constantly dry and i have to put drops in 4/5 time a day, they are also blur at night and I get starbursts and halos from lights.
I went back in September 2016 to get a top up of laser surgery on my left eye and now they are telling me i have bubbles on the right lens, and there is nothing they can do about it.
I have been getting my drops from them since I received the surgery but now they are telling me after my next appointment in September I will have to start paying for them, and I feel I may need to use eye drops for the rest of my life.
I wish I had never got this done as It gets me down. I am not happy with any of these issues and I am contacting you for some help or advise. Thank you

I paid £5000 for the surgery and was told that I would only have to have a pair of glasses with a very slight prescription to read, but believe me this is not the case, and I am still having to use two pairs of glasses.
This is affecting my daily work and I am now in a position where my eyesight is deteriorating even further, as my midrange vision is becoming slightly blurred.

I demanded optical express supply me with information as to:
1. Why they ceased to continue with my after care in righting my vision to the degree they first sold me
2. Why they ignored my request for another appointment for months
3. Why they are now asking me to pay for care, even though Optical Express have not rectified my vision to what was initially sold to me
4. Why I need to see another consultant when the first consultant proposed another solution, (piggyback lens)
5. Why am I unable to see out of my left eye to the degree they promised me when they initially sold me the service (my vision is worse in this eye)
6. Why is it that I am still seeing floaters after all this time
7. Why am I still suffering with dry eyes 18 months after the surgery, which I didn’t have before
8. Why do I see a clear blob form at the bottom of my right eyes field of vision
9. Why do I still see the edges of the natural lenses they replaced 18 months after the initial surgery
10. Why do I still see the intermittent blue flashes in both eyes
11. Why is my night vision getting worse with the starburst getting worse
12. Why didn’t they insert the multi-focal lenses instead of the mono-focal, I was initially advised that the multi-focal would give me the better range of vision (I understand the side effects of this)

I am totally unhappy in every aspect of service, and treatment I have received from Optical Express.

I believe they do not care about their customers aftercare.

It's the same case over and over, where they have the money and are not bothered.

Hello was just reading your review and wondered how you got on 24 January with Dimitris Kazakos?
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admin: Hi Karon, pls advise who this message is addressed to and I will edit accordingly?

Recently my wife had lens replacement on the 10th March 2017 at the immense cost of £6,600.00, done at the Westfield Centre Shepheards Bush. We did get to know and talk to a few other people who had the operation and seemed to be really happy with the results, and were pleased that they had much improved vision, unfortunately my wife was extremely upset with her results and her sight isnt as good as it was, she has the halo effect in day light and indoors whenever there is a light on, her close up vision reading is good however anything more than a few feet away is always blurry. She hasn't been able to drive for the last month as her sight is now well below the driving standard, also because of the strain on her eyes it is causing headaches etc... being stuck in and not being able to drive is having an effect and making her depressed.
Optical express diagnosed her with dry eyes and gave her drops, we have been to 3 appointments so far over the last month. They are telling us that she is suffering from dry eyes and at the last appointment on Friday 7th April was told that the sight hasn't yet improved anymore but there may still be bruising to heal and so have made us another appointment for a months time, when hopefully there will be some improvement, the consultant told her not to drive obviously and advised that she could get some glasses that way she may be able to drive but optical express would not cover the cost for that and she should go to specsavers as it would be cheaper!!! Also after 3 months if theres no improvement it would be possible to correct her sight with a top up of laser surgery, we wrongly assumed this would be free and included in the £6,600 that we have already paid but have since found out that there would be a cost of around £1,000.
Tell me is there any possibility that her eyes may improve now after a month since the operation as I really cant see that if theres been no improvement up till now, her eyes are not likely to improve at all?? I am starting to feel like that every appointment we go to we are just being given excuses fobbed off and turned away for a few more weeks!
Ultimately we want her to be able to see as clearly as possible and this is why we were prepared to pay as much as we did and if theres still a chance of that happening thats great, however I am starting to get very suspicious and am thinking they have just taken our money and haven't delivered the goods that we were promised!! If that is the case Im thinking I need to get my money back from them and give it to someone who can sort her eyes out for us.
My wife always talked about getting her eye sight fixed one day and having laser surgery it was like a dream for her, as soon as I could afford it it was a pleasure to pay for my beautiful wife to have this operation, they advised that her eyes were to bad for laser but lens replacement would do the trick!! A lot more expensive I know but this was to fix the love of my lifes eyes, small price to pay for her happiness or so I thought.
I cant express in words how much I regret doing this and how guilty and responsible I feel that I actually paid for this to be done to her, it is a nightmare and I do well up inside whenever I think about her poor eyes, I just hope and pray that I can find someone who can fix this mess!!

Really do need your help, guidance and advice on this asap please, If you need anymore info dont hesitate to ask
Andrew and Hayley Price

Hi

I came across this site and was looking at RLE as I have an issue now.

I had surgery (Lentis Mplus implants) in November 2013 in Clane private hospital in County Kildare in the Irish Republic. At that time Optical Express Belfast referred all their customers in Northern Ireland there.

I was satisfied with the surgery as I was liberated from glasses (my prescription had been +6.5) - well more or less but I still need supermarket +1s for small print. For some reason my right eye did not achieve the prescription expected but the left (dominant) eye did. That said I was convinced my distance vision was not so good but I was told by Optical Express I had 20/20 vision and so I moved on. I can legally drive without glasses etc.

Then in May 2015 suddenly one evening I got awful irritation in my left eye and redness and a feeling of something in it - in the corner. There followed a lot of visits to Optical Express in Belfast - I was given drops - and then to the NHS eye hospital here in Belfast. Conclusion I have bleptharitis - lubricating eye drops forever.

However just in recent months I have become aware that the left dominant eye (with the better prescription) is not seeing as well as the right. The vision is waxy and I notice that dazzle and halos around lights is much more severe when using the left eye alone. Of course I use both eyes so its a bit odd but I manage.

Of course reading up it suggests to me posterior capsule opacification - a posterior capsulotomy procedure is required. That said I am no expert. However its still mild. I contacted Optical Express because I recalled they had assured me they would look after me for life! Strangely I can find no terms and conditions - I can only conclude I was given none. And now their website says clearly aftercare is for 12 months only (but they saw me and gave me drops in May 2015 and again in June and September 2015) and that the posterior capsulotomy YAG laser procedure is a separate item to be charged at £495 per eye (I think it was £395 only a few months ago when I first looked at their site).

So I have written to Optical Express (I rang them and got nowhere and was told to write) to ask about my surgery aftercare and to point out that the potential for YAG surgery had been pointed out to me before surgery and that I understood this additional surgery was included in the service I could expect after my surgery.

I wonder has anyone else gone down this line with OE? From reading up I think the symptoms of posterior capsule opacification can occur any time up to 5 years after surgery. - anyone know?

Of course reading this site I am worried are my symptoms indicative of something else.

Any views welcomed.

Hi Doug, like you 2013. I had the 'wait and see' line too, but it turned out this was just nonsense. Basically the surgeon is trying to get you to wait in order to exceed the statue of limitation - after 3 years he can't be sued. Yes, explantation is risky, especially after this length of time, but look at it this way; if you need a YAG capsulotomy then the chances of ever having an explant reduce to zero - it's too risky. And being stuck with vision as bad as provided by lenses like the Lentis M-Plus until the day you die is a depressing prospect. The name that I keep hearing for this level of complexity is [advertising]. Now, he also happens to be a fan of trifocals but I think that's an honest mistake on his part In any event he does seem to have a reputation for excellence, although there's always going to be a risk...

Hi Carl G. Out of curiosity, when did you have multifocals fitted? I had RLE in 2013 and multifocals fitted in both eyes. Worst decision of my life. But after 1 year of persevering and being told "it will get better, your brain needs time to adjust" etc etc etc, the surgeon who done the RLE on me, told me that I could have an explant and monofocals fitted, but he advised against it as there was potentially more negative outcomes than positive. If I decided to go ahead with the explant, he said that he would not do it, but would get another surgeon to operate on me.