[Influence of the yellow-tinted intraocular lens on spectral sensitivity]

One of the complaints of patients with aphakic eyes or pseudophakic eyes implanted with UV or non-UV intraocular lenses (IOLs) is chromatopsia. To determine the extent of color distortion, we measured the spectral sensitivity curve of normal subjects with visual acuity above 1.0 with correction, if any, including subjects implanted with the yellow-tinted IOL (UVCY IOL: HOYA Co.). We found that color sensitivity in the blue range (400-440 nm) declined rapidly with subjects age. We drew a regression line plotting age against sensitivity for 66 normal subjects. Sensitivity for pseudophakic eyes implanted with UVCY and UV IOLs at 400 nm corresponds to that of subjects in their early 20's. That of pseudophakic eyes implanted with non-UV IOLs and aphakic eyes corresponded to that of infants. In summary, compared to UV IOL and non-UV IOLs, the UVCY IOL was found to best approximate the color sensitivity of healthy eyes.