IOL litigation is filed in the US

More than 40 UK cataract patients who were fitted with faulty intraocular lenses during cataract surgery at various primary care trusts around the country are suing the American lens manufacturer and the packaging company.

The litigation has been filed by law firm Birchall Blackburn which is representing 171 claimants worldwide who were fitted Aqua-Sense hydrophilic IOLs manufactured by Ophthalmic Innovations International (OII) which had become contaminated with impurities from their packaging.

The issue arose in April 2004, when the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency alerted all NHS trusts about the lenses, stating 27 per cent of the 868 implanted lenses had been identified as 'developing cloudiness leading to replacement'. It said that OII had informed its customers of 'increased incidence of opacification' caused by faulty packaging, in May 2001.