Assessment of Visual Habituation Measured With the Halo & Glare Simulator and Its Impact on Patient Satisfaction Following Quadrifocal IOL Implantation.

Purpose: To evaluate the levels of habituation and its influence on outcome satisfaction in patients who underwent bilateral multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) implantation.

Methods: A total of 24 patients underwent bilateral multifocal IOL implantation surgery with the AcrySof IQ PanOptix trifocal diffractive IOL (Alcon Laboratories, Inc) following cataract extraction or for refractive purposes. Data were collected 3 and 6 months after surgery, which included subjective refraction, corrected and uncorrected visual acuity (distance, intermediate, near), a contrast sensitivity test, simulation with the Halo & Glare Simulator (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG), two visual quality surveys, and a slit-lamp examination by an ophthalmologist.

Results: All patients were spectacle independent for distance vision and 92% (n = 22) needed no visual aid for near vision. Minor visual acuity improvement was detected between both examinations at monocular uncorrected distance visual acuity ( = .025). Improvements of presence, size, and intensity of visual disturbances were not statistically significant, but overall patient satisfaction ( = .009) and Weber-Contrast sensitivity under mesopic conditions ( = .029) increased significantly.

Conclusions: Diffractive multifocal IOLs are a stable treatment for presbyopia and/or cataract with a high spectacle independence rate. Visual disturbances caused by their optics do not decrease significantly between 3 and 6 months after surgery. Habituation and neuroadaptation play a significant role in patient satisfaction and contrast sensitivity during and possibly beyond that period. .