Alcon, Inc. (NYSE: ACL)announced yesterday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its aspheric AcrySof® IQ Toric intraocular lens (IOL). Alcon’s release states that the new lens offers an enhanced aspheric optic that improves image quality and increases contrast sensitivity in cataract surgery patients with astigmatism. Alcon further states the innovative lens design offers these patients the best opportunity for quality distance vision without glasses.

Edward Holland, M.D., director of cornea at the Cincinnati Eye Institute and professor of ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati, was quoted in the release as stating that “with the addition of asphericity to the AcrySof® Toric lens . . . I can now reduce spherical aberration, enhance image quality and improve functional vision for my cataract patients. . . at the same time, the thinner lens profile is ideally suited for micro-coaxial surgical techniques, which surgeons use to reduce incision size in cataract surgery.”

Read ^[1] the full release on iStockAnalyst.com.