Proposal of a new diffractive corneal inlay to improve near vision in a presbyopic eye

Assessment of a New Trifocal Diffractive Corneal Inlay for Presbyopia Correction Using an Adaptive Optics Visual Simulator

In this work, we analyze a proposal of a new intracorneal diffractive lens for presbyopia correction that could allow good, distance, intermediate and near vision. By using an adaptive optics visual simulator, we study the influence of two factors in the inlay performance: the spherical aberration (SA) and the potential errors of in thickness, induced in the manufacturing process. We show that the inlay through-the-focus imaging performance can be customized with the SA value, favoring either distance–intermediate or intermediate–near vision. Moreover, we found that with thickness variations of 10%, the inlay still maintains its trifocal nature.

A new trifocal corneal inlay for presbyopia

Corneal inlays (CIs) are the most recent surgical procedure for the treatment of presbyopia in patients who want complete independence from the use of glasses or contact lenses. Although refractive surgery in presbyopic patients is mostly performed in combination with cataract surgery, when the implantation of an intraocular lens is not necessary, the option of CIs has the advantage of being minimally invasive. Current designs of CIs are, either: small aperture devices, or refractive devices, however, both methods do not have good performance simultaneously at intermediate and near distances in eyes that are unable to accommodate. In the present study, we propose the first design of a trifocal CI, allowing good vision, at the same time, at far, intermediate and near vision in presbyopic eyes. We first demonstrate the good performance of the new inlay in comparison with a commercially available CI by using optical design software. We next confirm experimentally the image forming capabilities of our proposal employing an adaptive optics based optical simulator. This new design also has a number of parameters that can be varied to make personalized trifocal CI, opening up a new avenue for the treatment of presbyopia.

Optics theory and practice in Iberoamerica: introduction to the feature issue

This feature issue of Applied Optics (AO) on Optics Theory and Practice in Iberoamerica (OTPI) collects significantly expanded refereed papers presented at the multiconference RIAO-OPTILAS-MOPM, held in Cancún, Mexico, Sept. 23-27, 2019. All authors who participated at the conference were contacted and invited to contribute to this special issue. Furthermore, the AO dedicated issue on OTPI was open to contributions from other practitioners in all related areas, through a call for papers published in AO.