Total Corneal Higher Order Aberrations And Its Correlation With Gender, Age And Spherical Equivalent

The aim of the study was to establish normative data for numerous corneal parameters, including the total corneal higher order aberrations HOAs, based on a large clinical population. Specifically, we wanted to know whether such data is gender-specific, how strong it changes over lifetime and its dependents on the refractive error of the eye. All this against the background of the increasing number of patients that wish for spectacle independence after IOL implantation and therefore subsequently a growing amount of multifocal intraocular lens implantations. There are suggested cutoff values with respect to total corneal HOAs for this kind of IOLs that may be decisive for reaching aimed goal.

International Vision Correction Research Centre (IVCRC), Department of Ophthalmology, Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Germany

I.R.C.C.S.-G.B. Bietti Foundation, Rome, Italy

QVision Vithas Hospital Almería, Almería, Spain

In this three-centre retrospective study, phakic eyes without any known pathologies or previous refractive surgery were measured with the Pentacam AXL Wave (only measurements with good quality scores were included). Total corneal HOAs of the 4mm zone and its correlation with age, gender and SEQ were analysed.

For statistical analysis SPSS for Windows version 26.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used. Simple correlation was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient, T-test was used to detect statistically significant differences between gender and with respect to the amount of data, normal distribution was assumed.

The study included 1074 eyes and their distribution with respect to gender, age and SEQ was as follows: 628 females F with an average age of 51 ±19 years (10 to 91 years) and an average SEQ of -1,88 ±3,89D; 446 males M with an average age of 55 ±20 years (11 to 89 years) and an average SEQ of -1,72 ±3,57D.

The total corneal HOAs was 0,162 ±0,089µm. There was a statistically significant difference between gender (p=0,02); HOA_F= 0,157 ±0,078µm and HOA_M= 0,281 ±0,005µm. Therefore, further analysis was conducted separately for male and female. The HOAs of the two genders correlated both moderately with age (F: r=0,42, p<0.01; M: r=0,49, p<0.01) and showed only really weak correlations with SEQ (F: r=0,13, p<0.01; M: r=0,13, p<0.01).

As expected, we found that total corneal HOAs increase over lifetime. However, differences between individuals are large, whereby not only age but also the patients’ gender plays an important role. In contrast, the refractive error of the eyes seems to be a negligible factor.