Refractive outcomes of out-of-the-bag intraocular lens implantation

Abstract

To study and compare the refractive outcomes of retropupillary implantation of an iris-claw lens and transscleral suture fixation of IOL in complicated phacoemulsification. The study included 70 patients (73 eyes) after complicated phacoemulsification in combination with grade 2 lens subluxation. The first group included 36 patients (39 eyes) who underwent complicated phacoemulsification using torsional ultrasound and retropupillary implantation of an iris-claw lens. The second group included 34 patients (34 eyes) after complicated phacoemulsification using torsional ultrasound and transscleral suture fixation of an elastic hydrophobic IOL. In the postoperative period we performed a comparative evaluation of uncorrected visual acuity and best corrected visual acuity, the average absolute error of IOL optical power calculation, the precision of postoperative refraction within ±0.5 diopters, the degree of induced astigmatism, and the tilt of the IOL. At three months after surgery uncorrected visual acuity of 0.8-1.0 was achieved in 33.3% of cases in the first group and 17.6% in the second group, the average absolute error of IOL optical power calculation was 0.34±0.08 diopters in the first group and 0.63±0.19 diopters in the second group, the precision of postoperative refraction within ±0.5 diopters was 94.9% in the first group and 85.3% in the second group, the tilt of the IOL was 0.69±0.21° in the first group and 3.19±0.97° in the second group (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in best corrected visual acuity and the degree of induced astigmatism 3 months after surgery. Implantation of an iris-claw lens in the course of complicated phacoemulsification in lens subluxation significantly improves refractive outcomes of the implantation in comparison with transscleral IOL fixation.