What to Expect:
The potential benefits of the SING IMT™ are improved vision and improved quality of life. Achieving these benefits, however, will require some effort on your part. You will need to work with an optometrist, an occupational therapist and low vision specialist, who will guide your rehabilitation. They will instruct you to practice visual techniques and exercises, which will help you perform everyday stationary and ambulatory activities, such as pouring a cup of coffee, reading large print, cooking, and shopping.
The SING IMT is not a cure for late-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It will not restore your vision to the level it was before you had AMD, and it will not completely correct your vision loss. The goal is to help you see more with your central vision and reconnect you with things in life you love to see and do. Your ophthalmologist will describe the risks and benefits of the telescope implant to you, including the short-term and long-term risks of surgery. To get the most from your new vision after the SING IMT surgical procedure, it is important that you work closely with your low vision.
The most common risks of the SING IMT surgery include inflammatory deposits or precipitates on the device and increased intraocular pressure. Significant adverse events include corneal edema, vision-impairing corneal edema, corneal transplant, and decrease in visual acuity. There is a risk that having the telescope implantation surgery could worsen your vision rather than improve it. Individual results may vary.
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Information for Caregivers
As a caregiver for a family member or friend, your role is critical. It is important for you to learn as much as you can about the treatment program and what you can do to help the patient achieve their vision goals.
Here are some of the ways you can help:
- Before the surgery, you can help by making sure the patient understands the treatment and what it involves.
- After surgery, you can help your loved one recover by providing support around the home, helping your patient schedule and keep appointments, and making sure that your patient follows post-surgery instructions.
- Encourage the person with the SING IMT to participate whole-heartedly in visual training/rehabilitation sessions with the low vision optometrist and occupational therapist.
- Learn about the exercises that are assigned to your patient and encourage your patient to do them for the recommended amounts of time.
Your efforts will go a long way toward helping the patient adjust to their new vision status and get the most out of the intraocular telescope procedure.
Potential Lifestyle Changes
The SING IMT may improve your ability to see both close-up and far-away objects with your telescope-implanted eye. It may also be easier for you to visually recognize people and notice facial expressions.
The procedure does not restrict the use of natural eye movements and does not require you to move your entire head to follow what you are looking at, as do external magnifying appliances. You will likely be able to use your natural eye movements to scan things in the world around you, such as scenery, printed materials, TV or movies, and plays or sporting events. Because it is completely inside the eye, the telescope implant will be relatively unnoticeable to others.
Here are some of the other ways the tiny telescope implant may change your life:
- The peripheral vision in your eye with the SING IMT will be restricted. But the peripheral vision in your non-implanted eye will be the same as before the surgery.
- You will learn to use the eye with the SING IMT for detailed central vision and your non-implanted eye for less detailed, peripheral vision, like walking or moving around.
- After the surgery, you will need to wear eyeglasses and may need to use a hand-held magnifier to read or see fine details clearly. However, in general, less magnification will be needed than before your surgery.
- Since the SING IMT will reduce the amount of light that passes through your eye, you will be encouraged to increase lighting sources when indoors.
Your low vision optometrist and occupational therapist will help you understand all of these lifestyle changes before surgery and include them as part of the visual rehabilitation/training after surgery.
Your caregivers, including family members and friends, are an important part of your support network. Be sure that you involve them in your treatment so that they know how they can help you.
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