Definition

Noun: 1. A medical condition of the eye: The absence of the eye's natural crystalline lens. This condition most commonly occurs after the surgical removal of a cataract-clouded lens, but it can also be present from birth (congenital).

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • After cataract surgery, the patient had aphakia and required thick glasses or a contact lens to focus properly.
  • The ophthalmologist explained that aphakia causes a significant loss of focusing power in the eye.
  • Congenital aphakia is a very rare condition.

Advanced Usage

• "Pseudophakia": This is the related condition where the natural lens has been replaced with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL). It is the modern surgical outcome, contrasting with aphakia.
  • Modern cataract surgery aims to avoid aphakia by implanting an IOL, resulting in pseudophakia.

Variants and Related Words

• Aphakic (adj): Describing an eye or a person lacking the natural lens.
  • The aphakic patient had very blurry vision without correction.

Synonyms

• Lens absence

Notes on Meaning

• Aphakia is primarily a medical/clinical term. In everyday conversation, people would typically refer to the condition descriptively (e.g., "after cataract removal") rather than using the specific term aphakia.

Noun

1. absence of the natural lens of the eye (usually resulting from the removal of cataracts)