Optimizing the intraocular lens formula constant according to intraocular lens diameter

To determine whether the different diameters of a specific intraocular lens (IOL) have significantly different optimized SRK/T A constants and whether these new A constants can improve refractive outcomes.

Data were collected prospectively from Jan. 2011 to Dec. 2012 on all patients undergoing routine cataract surgery at a district general hospital in the UK. Patients were divided into three groups according to the size of the Akreos AO MI60 IOL used. A constants for the SRK/T formula were optimized according to the size of the IOL. These optimized A constants were then used to select future refractive outcomes.

A total of 2398 cataract operations were performed during the study period of which 1131 met the inclusion criteria. The three optimized A constants for the different sized IOLs were 118.98, 119.13, 119.32. The difference between them was highly significant (P≤0.0001). Two optimized A constants for three sizes of IOL led to an improvement in refractive outcomes (from 93.4% to 94.6% of refractive outcomes within 1.00 D of predicted spherical equivalent). The optimized A constant for the largest IOL was based on a small number of cases and was not used.

Optimizing the A constant for the three distinct sizes of the Bausch & Lomb Akreos MI60 lens lead to three significantly different A constants. In our practice, using two different optimized A constants for three different sized IOLs give the least refractive error, however, using three optimized A constants may give better results with a larger dataset.