[Analysis of the corneal spherical aberration in people with senile cataract]

To investigate the distribution of the spherical aberration in people with senile cataract, in the interest of the customized selection of the intraocular lens in cataract surgeries and the future design of the intraocular lens.

Retrospective study. Analysis of 922 eyes from 504 patients over 60-years-old was made. Patients were subdivided into 3 age groups (153 patients of 60-<70 years-old in group 1, 251 patients of 70-<80 years-old in group 2, 100 patients of 80- ≤ 90 years-old in group 3). Pentacam anterior segment analyzer (OCULUS, Germany) was used to measure the average corneal and posterior surface K-readings. The Zernike coefficients of corneal spherical aberration was calculated. The difference of corneal parameters among each age group was compared.

The average age of all patients was (73.5 ± 6.8) years-old. The average corneal K-reading was (44.50 ± 1.39)D and the average K-reading of corneal posterior surface was (-6.44 ± 0.25)D. There was no difference among 3 age groups (F = 0.738 and 0.373 retrospectively, P > 0.05). The corneal and posterior surface average K-readings had no correlation with the age. The average spherical aberration of anterior corneal surface was (0.361 ± 0.122)µm in group 1, (0.401 ± 0.139)µm in group 2 and (0.440 ± 0.145)µm in group 3 respectively. The spherical aberration of posterior corneal surface was (-0.122 ± 0.035)µm, (-0.105 ± 0.040)µm and (-0.090 ± 0.043)µm respectively. The total corneal spherical aberration was (0.360 ± 0.142)µm, (0.421 ± 0.158)µm and (0.476 ± 0.170)µm respectively. Significant differences were observed among 3 age groups (F = 10.561, 20.937 and 17.257 retrospectively, P < 0.01). The spherical aberrations of the corneal anterior, posterior surface and total cornea had positive correlation with the age (r = 0.203, 0.288 and 0.258 respectively, P < 0.01). The corneal spherical aberrations had no differences between right and left eyes, and had significant positive correlation between both sides.

The people with senile cataract over 60-year-old had higher corneal spherical aberrations than other age. The corneal spherical aberrations increased with the age and had significant correlation inter-ocularly.