Patients who have been rejected for popular Lasik refractive surgery have a new option: an implantable lens that promises perfect or near-perfect vision.

The procedure's biggest drawback is its price. Goldstein charges $3,500 for each eye -nearly double the price of Lasik - and others may charge more. Deemed cosmetic surgery, insurance doesn't cover it.

"It's amazing, I can finally see," said Rhonda Biack, 43, who has been wearing contact lenses or glasses since she was in second grade. She could barely see past her nose.

Biack was turned down for Lasik because her vision was so bad. She was told by Goldstein that the Visian lens "was coming to the States, and you should qualify."

Each year, some 4.5 million Americans undergo Lasik, or Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis. One of the most common elective surgeries in the U.S., it uses a tiny scalpel to lift a thin flap of tissue, followed by quick bursts of a laser to sear away part of the cornea, usually to correct nearsightedness.

As many as one in five patients who want Lasik can't have it because they are extremely near sighted, prone to dry, red eye or have large pupils or thin corneas.

The Visian lens is implanted behind the iris, the color portion of the eye. It is approved for adults 18 to 45 who aren't Lasik candidates, but doctors may use the lens in a so-called off-label use, a common practice, for other candidates of any age.

One is cataract formation, which occurred less than 1 percent of the time, and even rarer retinal tears or detachments, which can be blinding, according to an approximately 500-patient study presented to the federal Food and Drug Administration last year to obtain federal approval.

Goldstein considered the results of all six procedures "stunning. Everyone read 20-20 or better. It was so thrilling to have patients experience such dramatic changes so soon."

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