Optical aberrations in professional baseball players

To determine the presence, type, and size of optical higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in professional athletes with superior visual acuity and to compare them with those in an age-matched population of nonathletes.

Vero Beach and Fort Myers, Florida, USA.

Players from 2 professional baseball teams were studied. Each player's optical aberrations were measured with a naturally dilated 4.0 mm pupil using a Z-Wave aberrometer and a LADARWave aberrometer.

One hundred sixty-two players (316 eyes) were evaluated. The HOAs were less than 0.026 mum in all cases. Spherical aberration C(4,0) was the largest aberration with both aberrometers. There were small but statistically significant differences between the aberrometers in mean values for trefoil C(3,3) and C(3,-3) and secondary astigmatism C(4,2). Although statistically significant, the differences were clinically insignificant, being similar at approximately 0.031 diopter (D) of spherical power. A statistically significant difference was found between the professional baseball players and the control population in trefoil C(3,-3). These differences were clinically insignificant, similar to 0.071 D of spherical power.

Professional baseball players have small higher-order optical aberrations when tested with naturally dilated pupils. No clinically significant differences were found between the 2 aberrometers. Statistically significant differences in trefoil were found between the players and the control population; however, the difference was clinically insignificant. It seems as though the visual system of professional baseball players is limited by lower-order aberrations and that the smaller HOAs do not enhance visual function over that in a control population.