SynergEyes, Inc. (Carlsbad, CA) recently announced it has launched its next generation hybrid contact lens design for keratoconus. The new lens, called ClearKone, has a patent-pending design that vaults the irregularities of a keratoconic cornea and restores vision to a vast majority of patients without compromising comfort or eye health, according to the company.

Hybrid contact lenses have a central zone identical to a rigid gas permeable (GP) contact lens, surrounded by a peripheral zone made of a soft contact lens material. The lenses are designed to provide the optical clarity of a GP contact lens, with wearing comfort comparable to a soft contact lens.

The design of hybrid contact lenses makes them especially suited for fitting many types of hard-to-fit eyes, including those with misshapen corneas due to conditions such as keratoconus and ectasia following LASIK or other laser vision correction surgery.

“SynergEyes recognized the need to develop a hybrid contact lens design that could fit a much broader spectrum of keratoconus patients, including oval cones, highly advanced central cones, decentered cones and, depending on the specifics of the case, globus keratoconus and pellucid marginal degeneration,” says Kellie Kaseburg, Vice President of Global Marketing for SynergEyes. “The ClearKone lens does just that and will allow many more keratoconus patients to experience the benefits of hybrid technology.”

ClearKone is currently available in limited release in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The lens will be more widely available starting in September 2009. For more information, visit www.synergeyes.com.

This week researchers at the University of Houston’s College of Optometry announced their creation of contact lenses that are custom-made for people with higher-order aberrations. Assistant Professor Jason Marsack said the contacts only work for the individual patient they are designed for, like fingerprints for the eye.

Higher-order aberrations (HOAs) are more subtle and complex optical defects than common refractive errors, and they affect nearly everyone. It’s estimated that up to 15 percent of the total refractive problems people have are caused by HOAs rather than nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.

Until recently, eye doctors did not have the ability to detect higher-order aberrations in routine eye exams. Lately there is growing attention to the development of adaptive optics because new wavefront technology (aberrometry) can detect and measure these aberrations. So far more than 60 different aberrations have been identified, and patients with the same aberration may require unique lenses.

The research team is supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute. The team hopes their laboratory results can lead to products for widespread clinical use.