Effects of decentration and tilt on the optical performance of 6 aspheric intraocular lens designs in a model eye.

Purpose: To compare the effect of decentration and tilt on the optical performance of 6 aspheric intraocular lens (IOL) designs in a model eye.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dokkyo Medical University, Tochigi, Japan.

Design: Experimental study.

Methods: In theoretical simulations, the amount of spherical aberration in the IOL was varied to produce residual ocular spherical aberration (range -0.15 to 0.30 μm) at a 6.0 mm entrance pupil. Wavefront aberration analyses were performed with the ZEMAX optical design program (version August 20, 2014) to obtain the ocular root-mean-square values of astigmatism, coma, trefoil, and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) when the IOL was centered on the insertion position and misaligned at a 4.0 mm entrance pupil. The retinal visual images were calculated using the same conditions. Six 20.0 diopter (D) aspheric IOLs and one 20.0 D spherical IOL were used for the experimental studies. Each IOL was inserted in the model eye. The actual alignments were measured using a Scheimpflug camera (EAS-1000). The wavefront aberrations and visual images were gauged using a wavefront analyzer (KR-1W) at several IOL alignments.

Results: Intraocular lens decentration and tilt increased wavefront aberrations and degraded optical performance. Astigmatism, coma, and HOAs generated by misaligned IOLs were related to the amount of spherical aberration correction of the IOLs. The extent of spherical aberration remained unchanged by the amount of misalignment. Experimental model eye results showed trends similar to theoretical results.

Conclusions: The spherical aberration correction amount in the aspheric IOL design was critical for the astigmatism, coma, and HOAs generated by the IOL misalignment. Additional spherical aberration corrections led to a more sensitive optical performance degradation resulting from IOL misalignment.