Optical quality and visual performance with customised soft contact lenses for keratoconus

Amit Jinabhai, Clare O'Donnell, Cindy Tromans, Hema Radhakrishnan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated how aberration-controlling, customised soft contact lenses corrected higher-order ocular aberrations and visual performance in keratoconic patients compared to other forms of refractive correction (spectacles and rigid gas-permeable lenses). Methods: Twenty-two patients (16 rigid gas-permeable contact lens wearers and six spectacle wearers) were fitted with standard toric soft lenses and customised lenses (designed to correct 3rd-order coma aberrations). In the rigid gas-permeable lens-wearing patients, ocular aberrations were measured without lenses, with the patient's habitual lenses and with the study lenses (Hartmann-Shack aberrometry). In the spectacle-wearing patients, ocular aberrations were measured both with and without the study lenses. LogMAR visual acuity (high-contrast and low-contrast) was evaluated with the patient wearing their habitual correction (of either spectacles or rigid gas-permeable contact lenses) and with the study lenses. Results: In the contact lens wearers, the habitual rigid gas-permeable lenses and customised lenses provided significant reductions in 3rd-order coma root-mean-square (RMS) error, 3rd-order RMS and higher-order RMS error (p ≤ 0.004). In the spectacle wearers, the standard toric lenses and customised lenses significantly reduced 3rd-order RMS and higher-order RMS errors (p ≤ 0.005). The spectacle wearers showed no significant differences in visual performance measured between their habitual spectacles and the study lenses. However, in the contact lens wearers, the habitual rigid gas-permeable lenses and standard toric lenses provided significantly better high-contrast acuities compared to the customised lenses (p ≤ 0.006). Conclusions: The customised lenses provided substantial reductions in ocular aberrations in these keratoconic patients; however, the poor visual performances achieved with these lenses are most likely to be due to small, on-eye lens decentrations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)528–539
Number of pages12
JournalOphthalmic and Physiological Optics
Volume34
Issue number5
Early online date24 Apr 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Sept 2014

Bibliographical note

Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.

Keywords

  • aberration-controlling contact lenses
  • coma aberrations
  • higher-order aberrations
  • keratoconus
  • rigid gas-permeable contact lenses
  • toric soft contact lenses

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