Bausch + Lomb sought to understand the engineering challenges of complex cataract surgery to improve its products, procedures, and post-surgical visual acuity.

With SIMULIA from Dassault Systèmes, Bausch + Lomb can solve large nonlinear deformations and difficult self-contact issues, helping engineers visualise a complex biomedical application that cannot be measured physically.

By age 80, more than 50% of all Americans develop cataracts; every year, more than three million undergo corrective surgery. Modern cataract surgery was first performed in the late 1960s, but because the first prosthetic intraocular lens (IOL) was rigid, the incision required to insert it into the eye was large and outcomes varied widely.

Current surgery success rates approach 95%, however, largely due to the development of deformable (flexible) materials, including hydrophobic acrylic and silicone, which have decreased incision size dramatically. Today, lenses are being delivered through incisions as small as 1.8mm.

Engineers at Bausch + Lomb in Rochester, NY, recently set an ambitious goal of enabling incisions as small as 1 mm. Research and development is focused on new lens materials and improved geometry, as well as better insertion tool designs. Finite element analysis (FEA), with its ability to realistically simulate a wide variety of physical phenomena, is critical to this effort.

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