Effect of Spherical Aberration on the Optical Quality after Implantation of Two Different Aspherical Intraocular Lenses

PURPOSE To compare the effect of spherical aberration on optical quality in eyes with two different aspherical intraocular lenses. METHODS 120 eyes of 60 patients underwent phacoemulsification. In patients' eyes, an aberration-free IOL (Aspira-aA; Human Optics) or an aberration-correcting aspherical IOL (Tecnis ZCB00; Abott Medical Optics) was randomly implanted. After surgery, contrast sensitivity and wavefront measurements as well as tilt and decentration measurements were performed. RESULTS Contrast sensitivity was significantly higher in eyes with Aspira lens under mesopic conditions with 12 cycles per degree (CPD) and under photopic conditions with 18 CPD (p = 0.02). Wavefront measurements showed a higher total spherical aberration with a minimal pupil size of 4 mm in the Aspira group (0.05 ± 0.03) than in the Tecnis group (0.03 ± 0.02) (p = 0.001). Strehl ratio was higher in eyes with Tecnis (0.28 ± 0.17) with a minimal pupil size larger than 5 mm than that with Aspira (0.16 ± 0.14) (p = 0.04). In pupils with a minimum diameter of 4 mm spherical aberration had a significant effect on Strehl ratio, but not in pupils with a diameter less than 4 mm. CONCLUSIONS Optical quality was better in eyes with the aberration-correcting Tecnis IOL when pupils were large. In contrast, this could not be shown in eyes with pupils under 4 mm or larger. This trial is registered with Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03224728.