VARILUX PHYSIO POSTER RECEIVES “BEST POSTER” HONOR AT AAO MEETING
Wavefront Technology Poster Named One of Best at Show

DALLAS – (December 11, 2006) – Essilor of America, Inc. announces that the poster “Wavefront Technology Improves Vision by Reducing Aberrations in Progressive Lenses” was named one of the best posters at the 2006 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO).

The poster was presented by Marguerite B. McDonald, M.D., F.A.C.S., a pioneer in wavefront correction in corneal surgery, and featured Varilux® Physio™ progressive lenses from Essilor. The Academy awarded this distinction to less than 10 percent of the more than 700 posters on the 2006 program.

Dr. McDonald presented her poster, “Wavefront Technology Improves Vision by Reducing Aberrations in Progressive Lenses,” which concluded that wavefront-optimized Varilux Physio lenses provided better vision than a standard progressive lens design in all fields of vision. The abstract was one of 760 posters selected from more than 2,000 abstracts submitted to the AAO. The Annual Meeting Program Committee bases its “best poster” selections on the highest grades assigned by the Committee Reviewers for each subject sub-category.

“We are thrilled that the Academy recognized Dr. McDonald’s work on wavefront-optimization of progressive lens design,” said Danne Ventura, director of professional relations for Essilor. “We hope to continue to further educate ophthalmologists about the sophisticated wavefront-optimized progressive lens technology available in spectacle correction for presbyopes so that they may further enhance refractive outcomes for their patients.”

The purpose of the study was to determine if the new Varilux Physio wavefront-optimized progressive lens produces measurable optical benefits versus standard progressive lens designs. The study will help ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians make spectacle lens dispensing decisions for presbyopes
based on carefully reviewed scientific and clinical evidence. The paper concluded that the wavefront-optimized Varilux Physio lens provided better vision than a standard progressive lens design in all visual fields.

In January of 2006, Essilor launched Varilux Physio 360°™ and Varilux Physio as the first lenses to deliver the corrective power of W.A.V.E. Technology™: Wavefront Advanced Vision Enhancement to presbyopes seeking the sharpest, most natural vision. Worldwide studies with more than 2,000 patients conducted by Essilor showed that wearers preferred Varilux Physio no matter what the ametropia, age of presbyopes or previous type of lens.

Dr. McDonald presented her poster at the AAO and AAPO meeting, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from November 11 – 14, 2006.

Dr. McDonald is a clinical professor of ophthalmology at Tulane University Health Sciences Center, in New Orleans, LA, where she also maintained a private cornea, refractive and contact lens practice, Southern Vision Institute, prior to Hurricane Katrina. She is now also a cornea/refractive/anterior segment specialist with the Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island, Lynbrook, NY. In 1987, using a VISX laser, Dr. McDonald performed the world’s first excimer laser vision correction procedure, and on October 12, 1999, she performed the world’s first Summit/Autonomous wavefront-based excimer laser surgeries, which were also the first wavefront-based laser surgeries in the USA. Dr. McDonald was the first North American surgeon to perform Epi-LASIK in September 2003.

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Varilux and Crizal are registered trademarks and Physio, Varilux Physio 360° and DEFINITY are trademarks of Essilor International, S.A. Thin&Lite is a registered trademark and W.A.V.E. Technology: Wavefront Advanced Vision Enhancement is a trademark of Essilor of America, Inc.