Effect of Photo‐Initiation Polymerization and Thermal‐Initiation Polymerization on the Reduction of Glistening in Hydrophobic Acrylic Intraocular Lens Materials

Abstract Glistening is the condensation of water that forms within intraocular lens (IOL), which can degrade the patient's vision quality. Photo‐initiation and thermal‐initiation polymerization are widely used for the preparation of IOL materials. However, few studies have been attempted to investigate the difference between the above two polymerization methods in reducing the glistening of IOL materials. In this work, the difference in glistening between the two methods is investigated for preparing hydrophobic acrylic IOL materials. An interesting result is obtained that the glistening of photopolymerized IOL materials is much smaller than that of thermally polymerized IOL materials. The difference in glistening by the two polymerization methods can be explained by the temperature‐dependency of equilibrium water content (EWC) of IOL materials. The IOL materials prepared by photo‐initiation polymerization showed less EWC reduction with decreasing temperature than those obtained by thermal‐initiation polymerization, resulting in less glistening. Additionally, the IOL materials made by photo‐initiation polymerization has a greater UV blocking effect than those obtained by thermal‐initiation polymerization. These findings may provide additional insight into the development of commercial IOLs that can reduce glistening.