Comparison of various spherical aberration compensation methods in pseudophakic eyes.

PURPOSE: To provide a numerical comparison of the efficiency of spherical aberration (SA) compensation methods commonly used in commercial aspheric intraocular lenses (IOLs). METHODS: Numerical simulations were performed using the wavefront data of 139 right eyes implanted with a spherical Morcher 89A ("Bag-in-the-Lens") IOL. Simulations were done for spherical, constant aspherical and SA-free IOLs, as well as for the customized selection method. RESULTS: Constant aspherical IOLs bought 49.6% of the eyes to a targeted postoperative SA value +/- 0.05 microm, while zero-SA IOLs brought 61.2% of the eyes to this range. However with customized selection 95% of the eyes could be brought to this target, resulting in more control over the postoperative spherical aberration. If no aspherical correction was used, only 8.6% of the eyes could reach the set target. CONCLUSION: These numerical results suggest that IOLs with an asphericity as a function of IOL power, supplemented by a customized selection from a number of fixed SA values according to preoperative corneal SA, may provide sufficient control over the postoperative SA. Given the surgeon centration possibility of the Bag-in-the-Lens IOL used in this study, as well as its centration stability, this is an ideal lens to implement the customized selection method.