Pupil diameter study shows correlation with aberrations, contrast sensitivity after LASIK

In eyes with larger pupils who were treated with LASIK, spherical-like aberrations affect contrast sensitivity, whereas in eyes with smaller pupils coma-like aberrations are more likely to affect visual performance.

“In eyes with larger photopic pupil diameter, increases in spherical-like aberration dominantly affect contrast sensitivity, whereas in eyes with smaller pupil size, changes in coma-like aberration exert greater influence on visual performance,” said Tetsuro Oshika, MD.

Out of the 215 eyes tested in 117 patients, 105 of them had a photopic pupil diameter of 4 mm or larger while 110 were smaller than 4 mm. In the former group, there were no significant effects in third-order coma-like aberrations and, in the latter group, there were no significant effects in fourth-order spherical-like aberrations.

Conversely, the larger pupil group showed significant correlation between changes in the area under the log contrast sensitivity function (AULCSF) and a 10% change in low-contrast visual acuity. The smaller pupil group produced significant correlation between the changes in coma-like aberrations and the changes in AULCSF and a 10% change in low-contrast visual acuity.

The study was published in a recent issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.