Who invented the Intraocular Lens

to correct Cataracts?

Nicholas 'Harold' Ridley

HH

During WWII, Ridley treated RAF casualties with horrendous eye injuries, as a result of cannon shells exploding into cockpit canopies, shooting slithers of glass and perspex into the eyes of wounded pilots. He observed that plastic splinters lodged in the eyes did not trigger rejection while glass splinters did, leading him to propose the use of plastic implant lenses to correct cataract.

HH

In 1949 at St Thomas' Hospital, Ridley successfully performed the first implant of an intraocular lens. The operation was televised - another first.