Comparative study of induced changes in effective lens position and refraction after Nd:YAG laser capsulotomy according to intraocular lens design.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare the changes in refraction and effective intraocular lens (IOL) position between a plate-haptic IOL and a c-loop single-piece IOL after neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) laser posterior capsulotomy.

Methods: In a prospective study, anterior chamber depth and subjective refraction were measured in 110 pseudophakic eyes from 110 patients, before and 1 month after YAG laser capsulotomy. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the IOL design: group 1 (plate-haptic acrylic hydrophilic AT LISA tri 839MP) and group 2 (c-loop acrylic hydrophobic single-piece AcrySof SA60AT). Lens position was obtained through optical coherence biometry (Biograph WaveLight OB820).

Results: YAG laser capsulotomy was performed 37.8±9.8 months after surgery in group 1 and 40.6±8.6 months in group 2 (=0.125). Significant changes were found in the lens effective position after treatment in the 2 groups. The YAG posterior capsulotomy led to a change of anterior chamber depth in group 1 from 4.03±0.32 mm to 3.86±0.34 mm (=0.02) and in group 2 from 4.03±0.37 mm to 4.14±0.45 mm (=0.025). After YAG laser posterior capsulotomy, no significant changes were observed in mean spherical equivalent, sphere or cylinder for both groups (>0.05).

Conclusion: YAG laser posterior capsulotomy can induce a significant change in the IOL position according to the IOL type; however, the refractive change after treatment is clinically insignificant.