Implantable collamer lens or ICL, called by its manufacturer Visian ICL, is a soft, flexible gel-lens used in refractive surgeries for the permanent correction of myopia (nearsightedness), made of a collagen copolymer material  Collamer®, named by combining “collagen” and “polymer”.

Collamer does not cause a reaction inside the eye and it contains an ultraviolet blocker that provides protection to the eye.

The ICL procedure is a popular alternative to LASIK and PRK since it requires no removal of the corneal tissue .

The most widely used posterior chamber pIOL is the Visian ICL V4, an implantable collamer lens manufactured by Staar Surgical Companies. The implantable collamer lenses, formerly known as Implantable Contact Lenses, were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005

More than 400,000 lens have been implanted in the world till date.

ICL  is of two types, ICL spherical and ICL toric. Spherical ICL lens corrects only spherical power of glasses. Toric ICL lens corrects cylinder along with spherical power of glasses.