Intraocular lens

Intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens implanted in the eye as part of a treatment for cataracts or myopia. If someone has a natural lens in the eye it is known as phakic and if someone has an artificial lens in the eye it is known as pseudophakic or false lens. These are implanted during cataract surgery, after the cloudy eye's natural lens (colloquially called a cataract) has been removed. The pseudophakic IOL provides the same light focusing function as the natural crystalline lens. The second type of IOL, more commonly known as a phakic intraocular lens (PIOL), is a lens which is placed over the existing natural lens and is used in refractive surgery to change the eye's optical power as a treatment for myopia (nearsightedness). In other words this is an alternative to Lasik.