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Study finds better night driving ability with an aspheric vs. spheric IOL

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SAN DIEGO — Compared with a spherical IOL, patients implanted with an aspheric lens were better able to detect target objects such as pedestrians in simulated night driving conditions, according to a surgeon speaking here.

Robert P. Lehmann

Robert P. Lehmann, MD, performed a prospective, randomized, observer- and subject-masked study comparing the functional performance between the spheric AcrySof IOL (SA60AT, Alcon) and the aspheric AcrySof IQ IOL (SN60WF, Alcon). He presented his results at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.

The study included 75 patients contralaterally implanted with either lens. Functional performance was tested in 44 patients using a portable Night Driving Simulator (Vision Sciences Research Corp.). Patients monocularly viewed either rural night driving scenes with low-beam illumination or city driving scenes with street lights and low-beam illumination. Both tests were conducted under normal, fog and glare conditions, according to the study.

A safe driving response time was defined as 0.5 seconds, Dr. Lehmann said. The aspheric IOL not only met that level in rural detection, but also met warning signs in glare, fog and normal circumstances, he noted.

"The distance differences favor the aspheric IQ and resulted in clinically relevant advantages in the amount of time to react to target — in other words, less than half a second under virtually all the conditions tested," Dr. Lehmann said. "I think this fairly conclusively demonstrates that the aspheric design of the AcrySof IQ lens merits not only theoretical but functional real world benefits."