EDOF IN THE SKY - THE PILOT DILEMA IN CATARACT SURGERY

Correcting for at least partial depth of field during cataract surgery is a routine practice today. The full range of focus lenses are debatable for some professions. The goal of the study is to evaluate the partial depth of focus lenses on pilot performance in real life.

The study was performed at Medical centre "Grupchevi+", acording to highest standards. 

Methods: 12 subjects with profession of commercial airline pilots (24 eyes) were prospectively recruited and operated bilaterally, or consecutively (1 week apart) for cataract. The subjects had no ocular diseases including severe dry eye. Refractive EDOF lens (Vivity, Alcon)  with 0.25 -0.5 “of set” of non dominant eye was selected for all patients. Subjects were evaluated with VFQ25 and clinically.

Results: All subjects were male with a mean age of 61 years. The preoperative corrected binocular VA was 0.42(range 0.2-0.8) medium 0.5. Unaided binocular VA improved at 4 weeks after surgery mean of 0.93(range 0.8 -1.25) medium 1. Spectacle independence for work was reported by 11 subjects. Full spectacle independence for any activity was reported by 4 subjects. Dysphotopsia was bothersome for 2 subjects for up to 6 months. VFQ 25 - 11 subjects reached minimum score of 85%.

Pilots are often present with subcapsular cataract earlier in their life. The selection of IOL is crucial and subject of controversy. Our series demonstrated excellent results, regarding contrast sensitivity, distance and intermediate visual acuity and independence of glasses for most professional tasks.