Effect of head position on refraction in aphakic and phakic silicone-filled eyes

The refraction of the eye is altered significantly after the instillation of silicone oil into the vitreous cavity because of the silicone oil's high refractive index. The degree of the refractive change shows diurnal variation and depends on the patient's head position.

To analyze the degree and time course of refractive changes with respect to head position, the authors performed objective refraction in five aphakic and five phakic silicone oil-instilled eyes with attached maculae using an automatic hand-held refractometer. In each patient, 25 measurements were taken at short intervals using a hand-held autorefractometer with the patient in different positions (supine, head tilted down, and primary eye position).

The highest shift of refraction was +5.95 +/- 2.63 diopters spherical equivalent in aphakic eyes and +2.45 +/- 0.71 diopters in the phakic eyes after the patient's position was changed from supine to head tilted down. Three minutes after the position change the refractive shift was stable in almost all eyes. Only slight changes in cylinder and the respective corresponding axis with a mean cylinder shift of 10.1 +/- 5.1 degrees were noted.

Immediately after the head position was changed, aphakic eyes demonstrated more pronounced refractive shifts than phakic eyes. The results of this study explain patients' reports of diurnal changes in visual acuity after intraocular silicone oil instillation. Refractive changes caused by silicone oil stabilized a few minutes after a change in head position.