A private hospital has introduced a smaller replacement lens for cataract patients that doctors say requires a smaller incision and helps the patient heal more quickly.
Since May, about 20 patients at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in Happy Valley have received the new lens and all have recovered well, ophthalmologist Ivan Chen Ngan said.
The hospital was the first in the city to offer the lens, which was developed in France.
The new lens is 30 per cent thinner than conventional lenses, and requires only a 1.8mm incision. Conventional lenses require incisions of 2.6mm to 3mm.
Intraocular lenses are used to replace the patients' natural, cataract-clouded lenses.
'The smaller the incision is, the faster the wound heals and the lower the risk is to the patient,' Dr Chen said.