Today is the 75th anniversary of the very first intraocular lens implantation, done on a 45 year old woman, by British ophthalmologist Harold Ridley on 29th November 1949.

During World War 2, Dr Ridley noticed that injured pilots who had windshield splinters in their eyes were not having an adverse reaction to the windshield material.
Thus, inspiring the very first intraocular lens, made of Transpex (a modified version of Perspex).

The lens was removed immediately due to Ridleys lack of confidence in the stability of the lens.
After modifications of the lens (which originally had a myopic diopter of -21, and no haptics to provide secureness) the Intraocular lens was re-implanted into the same patient on 8th February 1950.

Thus, leading the way to a new era in ophthalmology,

Prior to this, a patient who received cataract surgery would be left without a lens and would have to use super thick glasses.

Click here to read this interesting article.

Thanks to Dr Rodney Keillor and Dr Francesc March de Ribot, I was lucky to be able to photograph one of the very first intraocular lenses, dating back to 1950. Thanks guys. 🙂