The operations were carried out on people who didn't want to wear glasses and those with glaucoma. File photo: Janerik Henriksson / SCANPIX
Sweden's Medical Products Agency has received over 400 reports of injuries linked to a kind of lens replacement surgery.
The lenses can get cloudy after a few years and many patients have been forced to undergo new operations to remove them, SVT reports.
The artificial lens Lentis has been used primarily on patients who wanted to stop relying on glasses, and also in some operations for glaucoma. But many of the people who received these lenses reported cloudy and less sharp vision afterwards. In these cases, the lenses were covered in small white spots.
On two occasions, in 2015 and 2017, the manufacturer Oculentis recalled certain Lentis models due to the risk of cloudiness. According to Oculentis, this may have been caused by phosphate remnants from a cleaning solution used during the manufacturing process.
A survey by SVT showed that the Medical Products Agency received more than 400 complaints of injuries suspected to have been caused by the lenses.
"It's not normal to have such a high number of reports. It is of course a signal that you have to look at what happened," said Helena Dzojic from the agency. She also said: "With the benefit of hindsight, you can say that if we had acted earlier it would have been better for the individual patients."
"It's an incredibly high figure if you consider that it relates to eyes that are no longer working as they should," said Per Montan, a doctor at St Erik Eye Hospital in Stockholm. He added that it is a risky procedure to have surgery to remove artificial lenses after several years, and can in some cases lead to permanent sight damage.
The lenses in question are no longer sold in Sweden, and the manufacturer says it has taken action according to protocol.
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