"Selection of a toric IOL can be made with respect to the patient's viewing habits," said Dr Omid Kermani (Augenklinik am Neumarkt, Augenlaserzentrum, Köln, Germany) at the recent ESCRS Congress held in Vienna, Austria.

In his presentation during the Multifocals I session, Dr Kermani revealed the results of a retrospective analysis of operations he and his colleagues (Drs Georg Gerten and Uwe Oberheide) performed on 52 eyes. In total three different IOLs were implanted in the study group who had a mean age of 60 years. The patients spherical aberration ranged from +9 to -13 D and the cylinder aberration was up to -7 D. Follow-up of the patients was performed in a three month interval and in over 90% of the group.

Sidebar 1: Specifics of the IOLs implanted.

The implanted IOLs included the ReSTOR toric (Group III), AcriLisa toric (Group II) and a toric PCL in the capsular bag with a dual implantation of a multifocal add-on sulcus IOL (Group I). (See Sidebar 1.) To analyse the efficacy of the lenses Dr Kermani and colleagues measured the pre-op corneal astigmatism and the patient's refraction at the last follow-up visit as well as near visual acuity (VA).

Results

"At the 3-month follow-up, 85% of the patients implanted with the ReSTOR toric IOL gained at least one line or more," said Dr Kermani. The clinicians also found that two-thirds of Groups I and II had a post-op uncorrected near VA of J2 or better, just over half of the ReSTOR group achieved this.

"In an overview of the vector analysis of the total astigmatism, we found that the effective reduction of the total cylinder was from -2.25 D preoperatively to -0.75 D postoperatively," he added.

Additionally, Dr Kermani and colleagues noted that Group I and Group II achieved the best reading abilities while Group III had the best intermediate and distance VA results.

Extremely satisfying surgery

"So, we believe these kinds of surgery are extremely satisfying for the patients because pre-op uncorrected VA in both refractive lens exchange and cataract surgery is usually very poor," said Dr Kermani. "Therefore, the acceptance and efficacy of these IOLs are very high."

He concluded, "The end power of the mIOL determines the outcome with regards to the predominant near, intermediate or distance VA and hence selection can be made with respect to patients' viewing habits."

Special Contributor

Dr Omid Kermani is a consultant at the Augenklinik am Neumarkt, Augenlaserzentrum Köln, Germany, and a member of OTEurope's EAB. He can be reached by Email: o.kermani@augenportal.de

Dr Kermani has indicated no financial interests in the subject matter of this article.