Intraocular lens injector apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12575925-B2
Application number	US-202218053070-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2022
Priority date	Nov 7, 2022
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

An injector for injecting an IOL into an eye, comprising an injector body having a lumen wall defining a lumen, a plunger having a longitudinal axis and a soft tip at a distal end of the plunger. The soft tip having a concave distal surface. In a plane including the longitudinal axis, the plane being perpendicular to an IOL optical axis when the IOL is located at a staging area of the injector body, the concave distal surface extending in a direction at a non-perpendicular angle relative to the longitudinal axis. The concave distal surface may be oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction, and the concave distal surface has no curvature along the direction.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . An injector system for injecting an intraocular lens (IOL) into an eye, comprising:
an injector body having a lumen wall defining a lumen, the lumen having a distal end configured to permit the IOL to be delivered into the eye; and a plunger having a longitudinal axis and a soft tip at a distal end of the plunger, the soft tip being configured to advance the IOL through the lumen to the distal end of the lumen, the soft tip having a concave distal surface with a plane extending therethrough, the plane including the longitudinal axis and the plane being perpendicular to an IOL optical axis when the IOL is located at a staging area of the injector body, and in the plane, the concave distal surface extending in a direction at a non-perpendicular angle relative to the longitudinal axis, the direction being tangential to the concave distal surface along its length.

2 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface is oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.

3 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface is circularly cylindrically-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.

4 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the soft tip comprises an elastomer.

5 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface defines a concavity and wherein no feature of the soft tip extends into the concavity.

6 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the concave distal surface has a blind bore formed therethrough, the blind bore extending through the soft tip proximally from the concave distal surface.

7 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is in the range of 40-70 degrees.

8 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is in the range of 45-65 degrees.

9 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the angle is about 60 degrees.

10 . The injector system of claim 1 , having an IOL disposed in a staging area of the injector body, the IOL having a haptic extending proximally from the optic, the soft tip configured to contact less than 10% of the haptic length as measured from the optic body to a distant end of the haptic, at initial contact between the soft tip and the haptic.

11 . The injector system of claim 10 , wherein the soft tip is configured to contact no more than 50% of the haptic length at any point during the plunger actuation.

12 . The injector system of claim 1 , wherein the injector body is comprised of two or more components each forming a portion of the lumen.

13 . The injector system of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the components constitutes an IOL shuttle.

14 . The injector system of claim 13 , wherein the shuttle has an IOL disposed therein in a biased state with a center of an optic body displaced relative to opposing circumferential outer edge locations of the optic body such that the optic body contacts and conforms to a wall of the lumen.

15 . A method of inserting an intraocular lens (IOL) including an optic body and a haptic into an eye by operating the injector system of claim 1 , the method comprising:
inserting the IOL at the staging area; actuating the plunger to move a portion of the haptic on top of the optic body.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the actuating step comprises, upon initial contact with the haptic, contacting less than 10% of the haptic length as measured from the optic body to a distant end of the haptic.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the actuating step comprises, moving the IOL from a staging area of the injector body through a distal end of the lumen while contacting no more than 50% of the haptic length at any point during movement of the IOL from the staging area to the distal end of the lumen.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the concave distal surface is oval-shaped in a plane perpendicular to the direction.

Assignees

• Bausch & Lomb Ireland Ltd

Inventors

• Valle Moises
• Muchhala Sushant

Classifications

• A61F2002/1681

  having supporting structure for lens, e.g. haptics · CPC title

• A61F2/1678

  with a separate cartridge or other lens setting part for storage of a lens, e.g. preloadable for shipping · CPC title

• A61F2/167 Primary

  with pushable plungers · CPC title