Eyesight worsens with age in patients with diffractive multifocal intraocular lenses

In patients with diffractive multifocal intraocular lenses (MIOL), age is associated with worse visual acuity (VA) and area-of-focus (AoF), a recent study has found.

The study included four patient age groups: <50 (n=14), 50–59 (n=10), 60–69 (n=33), and 70–79 years (n=14). Corrected distance (CD) and distance-corrected near (DCN) VA were measured postoperatively along with the defocus curve.

Three months after the surgery, CDVA was –0.18 logMAR and the youngest age group and –0.16 logMAR in patients aged 50–59 years. Meanwhile, those in the 60–69- and 70–79-year age groups had worse CDVAs of –0.14 and –0.10 logMAR, respectively.

The 3-month CDVA of the oldest age group was significantly worse than in those aged <50 (p=0.002) and 50–59 years (p=0.049).

A similar trend was reported for DCNVA, which had average values of 0.03, 0.03, 0.03, and 0.08 logMAR in the <50-, 50–59-, 60–69-, and 70–79-year age groups, respectively, at 3 months after surgery. Compared with participants aged <50 (p=0.008) and 60–69 years (p=0.019), DCNVA was significantly worse in the oldest age group.

The same was true for AoF, which was significantly smaller in patients 70–79 years of age as compared with those <50 (p=0.04) and 50–59 years (p=0.047) of age.

“Although postoperative satisfaction of MIOL implantations is high, even in cases with poor near zone outcome, adequate preoperative description and ophthalmic examination should be provided, especially for elderly patients,” the researchers said.