Surgeon: Wavefront technology will enhance IOLs, contact lenses

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Wavefront technology, which is now used in lasers for refractive surgery, will soon be used in IOLs as well, a surgeon predicted here.

“Surgeons need to educate themselves on the aspects of wavefront technology now; they need to learn the language of Zernike,” said Arun C. Gulani, MD, at a Bausch & Lomb booth presentation here during the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.

Currently, the diagnostic capabilities of wavefront aberrometers allow surgeons preoperatively to determine higher-order aberrations and to guide laser ablation, Dr. Gulani said. Postoperatively, the devices aid in management of the refractive patient.

In the future, he said, wavefront technology will be used to enhance the design of other refractive modalities such as IOLs and contact lenses.

“IOLs will be designed based on wavefront,” Dr. Gulani said. “These lenses will improve the way we see. Once you know the aberrations of the eye, you can accommodate for them with IOLs.”

Dr. Gulani said prototypes of wavefront-designed contact lenses have been tested in a clinical setting. “The contact lenses canceled out the aberrations in the cornea or optical system and progressively improved patients’ point spread function,” Dr. Gulani said.

To date, these refractive modalities exist only in the laboratory, he added.