One-Stage Versus Two-Stage Bilateral Implantable Collamer Lens Implantation: A Comparison of Efficacy and Safety

Evidence database / Studies / lorger-2024-one-two-stage-bilateral-icl

89enrolled patients*

178enrolled eyes*

2structured arms

475maximum standardized days follow-up

* Descriptive sum of reported arm counts. “≥” indicates that one or more arm counts were not reported; missing values are not treated as zero.

Study arm

Same-day bilateral ICL

ICL

Population

Patients: 50
Eyes: 100
Bilateral treatment: Yes
Age range: 21.7 to 49 years
Sphere range: Not reported
Cylinder range: Not reported
Spherical equivalent: Not reported
Corneal thickness: Not reported

Eligibility definition

Inclusion
Bilateral ICL implantation performed on the same day with at least 12 months of follow-up.

Exclusion
Not structured

Reported outcomes by follow-up

Outcome	Follow-up	Follow-up sample	Result	Reported fraction	Provenance
Post-ICL endophthalmitis complications	Mean 1.1 years	100 eyes	0%	0 / 100 eyes	VERIFIED Source · Results and Discussion

Complications

No structured complication observations are available for this arm. This means “not reported in this dataset,” not zero complications.

Study arm

Staged bilateral ICL

ICL

Population

Patients: 39
Eyes: 78
Bilateral treatment: Yes
Age range: 21.5 to 46.3 years
Sphere range: Not reported
Cylinder range: Not reported
Spherical equivalent: Not reported
Corneal thickness: Not reported

Eligibility definition

Inclusion
Bilateral ICL implantation staged one day to one week apart with at least 12 months of follow-up.

Exclusion
Not structured

Reported outcomes by follow-up

Outcome	Follow-up	Follow-up sample	Result	Reported fraction	Provenance
Post-ICL endophthalmitis complications	Mean 1.3 years	78 eyes	0%	0 / 78 eyes	VERIFIED Source · Results and Discussion

Complications

No structured complication observations are available for this arm. This means “not reported in this dataset,” not zero complications.

Study design

Retrospective two-center comparison of same-day bilateral ICL implantation with bilateral implantation staged one day to one week apart; included eyes had at least 12 months of follow-up.

Country: Germany and Austria
Publication-reported places: University Eye Hospital Munich, Germany · Smile Eyes Linz, Austria
Multicenter: Yes
Prospective: No
Randomized: No
Source type: RETROSPECTIVE
Regulator: Not reported

Place metadata may refer to a treatment site, institution or author affiliation. Confirm its role in the linked publication.

Limitations and notes

The study explicitly reported no endophthalmitis in either group, but it was powered for non-inferiority in efficacy rather than rare adverse events. The authors caution that a substantially larger sample would be needed to compare endophthalmitis risk.

Missing fields are not interpreted as negative findings. Arm counts may not be additive in all study designs.

Study evidence level
A simple, non-GRADE hierarchy based on design: randomized and large regulatory trials are high; prospective cohorts moderate; retrospective observational studies low. Manual review can override this label.