Psychophysical Vision Simulation of Diffractive Bifocal and Trifocal Intraocular Lenses

Simulations of Multifocal Vision in Patients With Previous Monofocal Intraocular Lens Implantation

PURPOSE

To evaluate the effectiveness and patient acceptance of multifocal vision simulation in patients with previous monofocal intraocular lens (IOL) implantation, and to explore their willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) based on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of multifocal vision.

METHODS

Seventeen patients with previous monofocal IOL implantation participated in this cross-sectional study. The SimVis Gekko device (2EyesVision SL) was used to simulate monofocal (Evaluation B) and multifocal (Evaluation C) visual experiences, compared to their existing vision (Evaluation A). Visual acuity at three distances and defocus curves were measured. Patients responded to inquiries about visual quality in each evaluation, bothersomeness of photic phenomena, probability to select the visual experience, and the monetary value they associated with enhanced WTP or diminished WTA visual quality.

RESULTS

The simulations underestimated the visual acuity reported for the IOL in existing literature by one or two lines, depending on the testing distance. This underestimation was more pronounced in defocus curves. However, 70.6% of patients were likely or very likely to opt for multifocal vision, indicating they perceived the benefits of multifocality. The WTP for multifocal vision was twice that of monofocal vision, and the WTP/WTA ratio exceeded 1, suggesting the perceived vision benefits outweighed potential drawbacks.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite underestimating the expected postoperative visual performance, the multifocal simulation enabled patients to perceive the benefits of multifocal vision to some extent. This system could be beneficial in avoiding potential postoperative complaints, but the possible rise in false-positive results should be considered and evaluated in future research. [J Refract Surg. 2023;39(12):831-839.].

Optical and visual quality of real intraocular lenses physically projected on the patient's eye

Visual simulators aim at evaluating vision with ophthalmic corrections prior to prescription or implantation of intraocular lenses (IOLs) in the patient's eye. In the present study, we present the design, implementation, and validation of a new IOL-in-cuvette channel in an Adaptive Optics visual simulator, which provides an alternative channel for pre-operative simulation of vision with IOLs. The IOL is projected on the pupil's plane of the subject by using a Rassow system. A second lens, the Rassow lens, compensates for an IOL of 20 D while other powers can be corrected with a Badal system within a 5 D range. The new channel was evaluated by through-focus (TF) optical quality in an artificial eye on bench, and by TF visual acuity in patients, with various IOL designs (monofocal, diffractive trifocal, and refractive extended depth of focus).

Agreement between subjective and predicted high and low contrast visual acuities with a double-pass system

PURPOSE

To evaluate the agreement between subjective high and low contrast visual acuity (VA) and predicted values from double-pass system measurements in healthy candidates to laser refractive surgery.

METHODS

Ninety-two eyes measured during the preoperative screening to laser refractive surgery were included in this retrospective analysis. High contrast subjective visual acuity (HCVA) and low contrasts at 20% (LCVA20) and 9% (LCVA9) were compared with the predicted VA obtained with a commercial double-pass system (OQAS) at the same levels of contrast, 100% (OV100), 20% (OV20), and 9% (OV9). The agreement was evaluated with Bland-Altman analysis computing the limits of agreement (LoAs) and the correlations with the spearman rho.

RESULTS

An underestimation of VA was obtained with the double-pass system for the highest contrast. Differences between predictive and subjective measurements were statistically significant for 100% contrast (- 0.08 logMAR, p < 0.0005), but not for 20% (- 0.03 logMAR, p = 0.07) and 9% (- 0.02 logMAR, p = 0.9) of contrasts. The LoAs increased with the decrease of contrast from 0.29 with 100% to 0.39 logMAR with 9% of contrast. A weak correlation was obtained between subjective and predicted VA (rho ≤ 0.33) that was only significant for 100% (p = 0.001) and 20% (p = 0.004) contrasts.

CONCLUSION

Mean differences between methods were reasonably small so mean results obtained for predicted VA in OQAS studies can be considered as reliable, at least in healthy subjects and for low contrast. However, limits of agreement were considerably poor which means that OQAS cannot replace individual subjective measurements of VA in clinical practice.

Prediction of Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity From Optical Simulations With Multifocal Intraocular Lenses

PURPOSE

To evaluate whether the prediction of visual performance based on the modulation transfer function area (MTFa) calculated with optical simulations is better correlated with visual acuity or contrast sensitivity obtained from defocus curves in patients implanted with a trifocal intraocular lens.

METHODS

Biometric eye data from 43 patients were used to create a mean eye model. A trifocal intraocular lens with a power obtained from the mean of the eyes implanted was incorporated into the model and the MTFa was calculated at the 11 defocus planes corresponding the 11 defocus locations measured in clinical practice. Simulations were conducted for pupil diameters of 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 mm. The MTFa correlation with visual acuity and contrast sensitivity was evaluated with the mean obtained after stratification of the clinical sample in four groups according to the previous pupil diameters.

RESULTS

A linear model predicted the visual acuity and contrast sensitivity from MTFa with similar accuracy to nonlinear models, with R² approximately 0.50 for visual acuity and approximately 0.42 for contrast sensitivity. A change of -0.01 logMAR and -0.02 logC was produced per unit of MTFa for visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, respectively. The mean difference between the visual acuity and contrast sensitivity obtained from the model and that measured in clinical practice was close to zero, but the bias varied depending on the defocus lens used, with higher deviation at -0.50 and -3.00 diopters of defocus.

CONCLUSIONS

The MTFa obtained from optical simulations can be used to predict the mean visual acuity and contrast sensitivity consistently, with contrast sensitivity being more sensitive but with higher bias. [J Refract Surg. 2019;35(12):789-795.].

Pre-operative simulation of post-operative multifocal vision

While multifocal intraocular lenses (MIOLs) are increasingly implanted to correct for presbyopia, how one sees with a multifocal correction is hard to explain and imagine. The current study evaluates the quality of various visual simulating technologies by comparing vision with simulated MIOLs pre-operatively and the implanted MIOLs post-operatively in the same patients. Two simulation platforms were used: (1) a custom-developed adaptiveoptics (AO) system, with two visual simulator devices: a spatial light modulator (SLM) and an optotunable lens operating under temporal multiplexing (SimVis); and (2) a wearable, binocular, large field of view SimVis2Eyes clinical simulator (SimVis Gekko, 2Eyes Vision, Madrid, Spain). All devices were programmed to simulate a trifocal diffractive MIOL (POD F, FineVision, PhysIOL). Eight patients were measured pre-operatively simulating the trifocal lens and post-operatively with implantation of the same MIOL. Through-focus decimal visual acuity (TF VA) was measured (1) monocularly in monochromatic light using a four-alternative-forced-choice procedure in the AO system; and (2) binocularly using a clinical optotype in white light. Visual simulations pre-operatively predict well the TF VA performance found post-operatively in patients implanted with the real IOL. The average RMS difference between TF curves with the different visual simulators was 0.05 ± 0.01. The average RMS difference between the TF VA curves with the SimVis pre-operatively and the real MIOL post-operatively was 0.06 ± 0.01 in both platforms, and it was higher in cataract eyes (0.08 ± 0.01, on average across simulators) than in eyes with clear lens. In either group the shape of the TF curves is similar across simulators and pre- and post-operatively. TF curves cross-correlated significantly between simulators (lag k = 0, rho = 0.889), as well as with results with the real MIOL implanted (lag k = 0, rho = 0.853). Visual simulations are useful programmable tools to predict visual performance with MIOLs, both in an AO environment and in a clinical simulator. Pre-operative visual simulations and post-operative data are in good agreement.