A sharper focus on aphakia. The new high-plus F3 series Soflens (polymacron) Contact lens

Historical Significance: Lens extraction for cataract left patients aphakic (no eye lens) until advent of the implanted intra-ocular lens invented by Harold Ridley in 1949. However, this procedure did not become commonplace until the 1970s when further developments in lens design and surgical techniques had come about. Aphakic patients were corrected with very high plus spectacle lenses that cumbersome, unsightly and often did not give good vision because vertex distance (distance between the lens and the eye) was critical. Contact lenses became an alternative optical correction that overcame these shortcomings, but since contact lenses only became commonplace in the 1960s they enjoyed only brief popularity as IOLs became the default for cataract removal.