[Night driving capacity of pseudophakic patients]

One hundred pseudophakic patients (aged 62.1 +/- 10.8 years) were examined for glare sensitivity and contrast vision, using the Mesoptometer II, 15.8 +/- 9.8 months after implantation of monofocal intraocular lenses. The patients were tested in order to determine whether they met the requirements of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG) for the granting of a driver's license. The patients were divided into three groups: (1) pseudophakic bilaterally (n = 50), (2) pseudophakic in one eye with phakic contralateral eye (n = 25), and (3) pseudophakic in one eye with cataract in contralateral eye (n = 25). There were no differences between the groups in corrected distance acuity (ANOVA, P = 0.17). Fifty-two percent of the patients did not fulfill the requirements of the DOG (group 1 50%, group 2 24%, group 3 84%). In groups 1 and 2 the binocular results for glare sensitivity and contrast vision were significantly better than the monocular results (P < 0.001). In group 3, however, there was no difference between binocular and monocular results (P > 0.3). In 20% of patients in this group the binocular results were worse than the monocular results. Results for both contrast vision and glare sensitivity were significantly related to age. Overall, this population of pseudophakic patients were 40-50% less suited to night driving than were healthy volunteers with normal eyes.