Wave front aberrations and patient satisfaction of aspheric intraocular lenses

Aim The aim was to study postoperative wave front higher order aberrations of eyes implanted with aspheric intraocular lens (IOL) in comparison with those with standard spherical IOL and to assess the subjective satisfaction in relation to both IOL designs.Patients and methods The study included 40 patients with bilateral cataract. Patients were enrolled in a prospective comparative case series from December 2013 till January 2015. All patients underwent a complete preoperative assessment. Phacoemulsification was done for all patients in both eyes. Aspheric IOL (Acrysof IQ SN60WF) was implanted in the right eye and standard spherical IOL (AcrySof SA60AT) in the left eye. Wave front examination was done at 3 months postoperatively to measure the higher order aberrations. A questionnaire was used to record the patients’ satisfaction regarding the two IOL designs.Results There were no significant differences between the two IOLs regarding the postoperative visual acuity or the mean refractive spherical equivalent. Spherical aberrations were significantly lower in the aspheric IOL group, with only 35% of the patients reported that it was the best eye. There were no significant differences in other aberrations.Conclusion Aspheric IOLs and standard IOLs have the same visual outcome regarding visual acuity. However, aspheric IOLs induced significantly less spherical aberrations. Aspheric IOL gave better qualitative visual functions in some patients especially during night.