Pseudophakic eyes show less myopic shift than aphakic eyes

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Pseudophakic eyes tend to have less myopic shift than aphakic eyes in pediatric patients, according to researchers at the Kellogg Eye Center. As a result, choosing IOL power aimed at producing initial emmetropic refraction has been “a good strategy” in patients with pseudophakia.

Steven M. Archer, MD, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the records of pediatric patients with either aphakia or pseudophakia to calculate the mean change in refractive error from one postoperative exam to the next. A total of 233 patients with aphakia and 92 patients with pseudophakia were studied. The mean age of the aphakic patients was 0.8 years and the mean age of the pseudophakic patients was 7.3 years.

The total mean myopic shift for patients with pseudophakia was 1.5 D; for patients with aphakia, it was 7.8 D at comparable ages of 2 to 20 years. An age-matched subset of patients with aphakia also showed more myopic shift in these patients than in those with pseudophakia.

“However, our data are insufficient for conclusions regarding children with pseudophakia younger than 2 years, in whom larger myopic shifts may occur,“ Dr. Archer wrote in the October issue of the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.