Myopic astigmatism a substitute for accommodation in pseudophakia

Abstract

The power of an intraocular lens can be calculated before surgery to make the eye emmetropic or ametropic. The physiological mechanism of accommodation however, cannot be restored with an inelastic lens. An increased depth of focus in the implanted eye can be predicted through optical principles alone, if the postoperative ametropia of the implanted eye is a simple myopic astigmatism. This increased depth of focus without accommodation was tested in artificial ametropia and found to be used in nature by the seal. To increase the precision of intraocular lens calculation the average change in corneal power induced at surgery is used to predict the postoperative corneal power. By controlled suture release in the postoperative phase, the amount of induced corneal astigmatism is adjusted to obtain a simple myopic astigmatism. Patients with an intraocular lens and a simple myopic astigmatism as a residual ametropia, are spectacle independent most of the time. They need their glasses only for driving or prolonged reading. The methods used to calculate the postoperative cornea, the postoperative anterior chamber depth and the intraocular lens are described with the corresponding calculator programs for the HP 41C calculator. Clinical results and measurements of the depth of focus are shown in a series of 50 successive implant cases.