New Artificial Eyeballs Touted as Very Realistic : Medicine: The improved implants have 90% of the movement of real eyes, compared with an average of 25% of normal movement for older types, doctors say.

Artificial eyeballs that move like real ones have been implanted in 4,000 people and may help many of the 4 million Americans embarrassed by odd movements of traditional fake eyes, experts said Tuesday.

Patients who receive the new implants are more likely to suffer complications, including a chance that the device will result in infections, tend to move outward and therefore require removal.

But doctors expect that as they implant more of the improved artificial eyeballs, the complication rate will fall so that it becomes about the same as that of traditional implants.

The improved implants have 90% of the movement of real eyes, compared with an average of 25% of normal movement for older types of artificial eyes, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The improved artificial eye was discussed Tuesday during the academy’s 95th annual meeting, which is being held this week at the Anaheim Convention Center.

About 4 million Americans have lost an eye due to injury, infection or other disease, according to the eye doctors’ group. Each year, at least 10,000 Americans lose an eye.

“For many of the 4 million monocular Americans, the new implant may be a dream come true,” the academy said, adding that many people with traditional implants are having them replaced with the improved model.

There are several types of artificial eyes. Each consists of an implant or artificial eyeball that is surgically placed in the eye socket, and a removable plastic shell designed to look like a natural eye. All types of fake eyes use a similar shell.

The newest type of implant is made of sea coral treated with heat and chemicals so that it becomes the same mineral as human bone. Eye socket muscles and blood vessels grow into the implant. Six months after implant surgery, a hole is drilled in the implant and a peg is used to attach the shell to the implant, allowing almost completely normal movement.

The traditional implant is a sphere of plastic or silicone rubber. The shell placed over it is not directly connected to the implant, so the fake eye’s limited movement depends on muscles that control the eyelids and eye socket.

Another type of implant is similar, but it has bumps that fit into dimples on the shell, allowing movement that is better than traditional implants but not as good as the newest model.

The coral implant probably will become “the standard way to rehabilitate the person who has lost an eye,” said Dr. Arthur C. Perry, a La Jolla ophthalmologist who invented the new implant and licensed Integrated Orbital Implants to manufacture it. He is the privately held company’s medical director and receives royalties.

Jordan Archer, a San Diego free-lance editor, had her traditional artificial eye replaced with the improved implant in 1989.

“It’s 100% better,” said Archer, who lost her left eye because of damage caused by diabetes. She said that until she received the movable eye, people often would ask her, “Gee, what’s the matter with your eye?”

“As anyone with a traditional implant will tell you, the artificial eye’s conspicuous lack of movement is a very real stigma,” said Dr. Michael A. Callahan, a University of Alabama eye specialist. “Other people stare or they look away. This causes some real psychological suffering.”

The improved fake eye first was implanted in a human in 1985 and gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 1989.