Ciba Vision recently announced that the company has discontinued manufacturing its SoftPerm brand of hybrid contact lenses. The hybrid contacts were designed for daily wear and yearly replacement.

Hybrid contact lenses have a central optic zone made of rigid gas permeable contact lens material, surrounded by an outer fitting zone made of soft contact lens material. The lenses are designed to offer contact lens wearers the best of both worlds: the crisp, aberration-correcting optics of gas permeable contact lenses, combined with wearing comfort comparable to that of soft contact lenses.

The company has advised eye doctors who have fitted patients with SoftPerm lenses to refit these patients with hybrid lenses offered by SynergEyes, a specialty contact lens manufacturer based in Carlsbad, California. SynergEyes offers a variety of hybrid contact lenses, including multifocal contacts and contacts for individuals with keratoconus.

SynergEyes has launched a new website (www.SynergEyesTransition.com) for eye care practitioners seeking information on refitting SoftPerm patients into SynergEyes hybrid contact lenses.

Consumers can learn more about SynergEyes hybrid contacts at www.synergeyes.com.

Keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease, generally causes vision problems that cannot be adequately corrected with eyeglasses.

But specially designed contact lenses often provide excellent visual acuity for people suffering from mild or even moderate stages of keratoconus.

In the January 2010 issue of Optometric Management, Gregory W. Denaeyer, OD, reviews four contact lens strategies for correcting vision problems caused by keratoconus:

Specialty soft contact lenses. This option often works well for individuals with mild keratoconus. Several contact lens companies produce specially designed soft contacts to fit the steep curvature of mildly keratoconic eyes, and these lenses also can correct significant amounts of keratoconus-induced astigmatism, according to Dr. Denaeyer.

Bi-aspheric gas permeable contacts. Gas permeable contact lenses that are aspheric on both surfaces (bi-aspheric) offer two advantages for keratoconus patients. The aspheric back surface helps the lenses stay centered for a more comfortable fit, and the aspheric front surface helps reduce higher-order aberrations for sharper vision, Dr. Denaeyer says.

“Piggybacking” contact lenses. This strategy involve fitting a gas permeable (GP) contact lens over the top of a soft lens. The GP lens can be specially designed to provide optimal vision for the keratoconic eye, and the underlying soft lens provides a cushioning effect for greater comfort. The soft lens also may help improve the fit of the GP lens and protect the cornea from friction caused by the GP lens that could otherwise lead to corneal scarring.

Scleral contact lenses. Specialty gas permeable lenses called scleral contact lenses are much larger in diameter than regular GP lenses so they can vault over the entire cornea and rest on the white of the eye (sclera). The large size of scleral lenses reduces pressure on the cornea and enables the lenses to stay centered, even on highly irregular keratoconic eyes.

Eye doctors who can offer their keratoconus patients all four of these contact lens strategies will help improve the fit and comfort of their contacts and help provide optimum vision, Dr. Denaeyer says.

[Ed. note: Another strategy not discussed by Dr. Denaeyer is the use of hybrid contact lenses. Essentially, the center of a hybrid contact is a gas permeable lens and the peripheral portion is a soft lens. Special hybrid lens designs are available specifically for keratoconus.]

SOURCE:  Four strategies for keratoconus. Optometric Management. January 2010.

SynergEyes, Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.) recently received a CONNECT Most Innovative New Product (MIP) Award for 2009 for its patent-pending ClearKone hybrid contact lenses designed for people with keratoconus.

CONNECT is a regional nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining the growth of innovative technology and life sciences businesses in the San Diego area.

The MIP Award finalists were selected from approximately 100 entries representing a broad range of companies within eight categories. The SynergEyes ClearKone hybrid contacts won the MIP Award in the Life Science - Medical Products category.

ClearKone hybrid contact lenses are designed specifically for people with moderate to advanced keratoconus who characteristically have poor vision with eyeglasses. The patent-pending hybrid lens design is optimized to vault the irregularities of the keratoconic cornea, thereby restoring visual acuity to a vast majority of patients without compromising comfort or eye health, according to the company.

“It is a great honor to receive an award recognizing SynergEyes as a technology leader among the medical device companies in San Diego,” said Kellie Kaseburg, Vice President of Global Marketing, in a press release issued by SynergEyes, Inc.

Since the market release of ClearKone hybrid contact lenses in May 2009, approximately 2,500 keratoconus patients have been prescribed the lenses, the company says.

To learn more about SynergEyes hybrid contacts and to find an eye doctor that prescribes ClearKone lenses for keratoconus, visit www.SharingOneVision.com.

SynergEyes, Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.) announced today that its new ClearKone hybrid contact lens for correction of vision problems associated with keratoconus is now available in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The new ClearKone lens is the second SynergEyes hybrid contact lens specifically designed for people with keratoconus — a degenerative disorder in which structural changes in the clear anterior portion of the eye cause the cornea to bulge forward into a cone shape.

Keratoconus frequently causes vision problems that cannot be corrected with conventional eyeglasses or soft contact lenses.

The company launched SynergEyes KC hybrid lenses in 2006, which have proven successful in restoring vision for certain types of keratoconic eyes. The ClearKone lens is designed to fit a much broader spectrum of cone-shaped corneas, according to the company.

Hybrid contact lenses feature a rigid, gas permeable central portion, surrounded by a ring of soft contact lens material. The lenses are designed to provide the sharp vision of gas permeable contact lenses and the all-day comfort and convenience of soft lenses, says Kellie Kaseburg, Vice President of Global Marketing for SynergEyes.

SynergEyes ClearKone and SynergEyes KC are the only FDA-approved hybrid contact lenses specifically designed for keratoconus vision correction in the United States. The company also makes hybrid contacts for the correction of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism in normal eyes.

You can learn more about SynergEyes hybrid contact lenses by visiting the company’s website.