SURGEONS AND RESEARCHERS HAVE ATTACKED PRESBYOPIA from almost every conceivable angle—intraocularly with multifocal and diffractive implants, extraocularly with scleral expansion bands and lasers, and superficially on the cornea with multifocal LASIK and PRK. To cover the one angle that was missing, companies are now coming at presbyopia from a different direction: intracorneal implants.

To be fair, intracorneal implants aren't entirely new, but they haven't been in the front of refractive surgeons' minds for a while. The most recent meetings of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery rekindled the buzz on corneal implants by way of several presentations on the topic, however. Here's a look at two of these implants and what might make them successful.