Optimum form of posterior chamber intraocular lenses to minimize aberrational astigmatism

To optically determine the optimum form for a posterior chamber intraocular lens (PC IOL), we calculated the aberrational astigmatism induced by tilt and decentration of the PCIOL using an exact raytracing. First, the position and the radii of curvatures of the IOL were determined to make an emmetropic eye model using a paraxial raytracing. Next, the chief rays originating from the fovea centralis were traced backward through the tilted and/or decentrated PC IOL, the center of the pupil and the cornea, using trigonometric raytracing. Finally, the maximum and minimum aberrational astigmatism were calculated based on the Coddington's Equations for the sagittal and the tangential foci of the ray. All the refractive parameters in Gullstrand's No. 1 schematic eye were adopted. The effect of varying anterior corneal asphericity on the results was also examined. Four forms of polymethylmethacrylate PC IOLs (refractive index: 1.491) were analyzed; a plano-convex IOL with the curved surface facing the cornea, and three bi-convex forms with the ratio of anterior-to-posterior radii of curvatures of 1:4, 1:2 and 1:1, respectively. The 1:4 bi-convex form showed the lowest values for the maximum aberrational astigmatism calculated at every combination of tilt and decentration except 0 degrees tilt and/or 0 mm decentration. The aberrational astigmatism with the 1:4 bi-convex form of PC IOL did not exceed 1.0 D at the maximum tilt and decentration. The variation of anterior corneal asphericity did not influence the results. We conclude that the 1:4 bi-convex form of PC IOL minimizes the postoperative astigmatism induced by tilt and/or decentration of the lens.