Ocular aberrations after cataract surgery with hydrophobic and hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lenses

PURPOSE: To compare tilt and some higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in patients who had cataract surgery and implantation of 2 types of acrylic intraocular lens (IOL), the hydrophobic MA60AC (Alcon) or the hydrophilic XLSTABI (Ioltech). SETTING: Fondation Ophtalmologique Adolphe de Rothschild, Department of Pr Hoang-Xuan, Paris, France. METHODS: Sixty eyes were included in this study. Eyes in group 1 (n = 30) received the acrylic hydrophobic MA60AC IOL, and eyes in group 2 (n = 30) received the acrylic hydrophilic XLSTABI IOL. Optical aberrations were measured with Nidek OPD-Scan at least 1 month after cataract surgery for a 6.0 mm pupil diameter using a 6th-order Zernike polynomials decomposition. RESULTS: In group 1, the mean root-mean-square (RMS) coefficient for the total higher aberration was 0.86 microm +/- 0.38 (SD). The mean RMS of the tilt, coma, trefoil, tetrafoil, spherical aberration, and secondary astigmatism was 0.81 +/- 0.45 microm, 0.38 +/- 0.30 microm, 0.55 +/- 0.18 microm, 0.13 +/- 0.23 microm, 0.30 +/- 0.13 microm, and 0.17 +/- 0.21 microm, respectively. In group 2, the mean RMS coefficient for the total higher aberration was 0.72 +/- 0.31 microm. The mean RMS of the tilt, coma, trefoil, tetrafoil, spherical aberration, and secondary astigmatism was 0.55 +/- 0.30 microm, 0.24 +/- 0.19 microm, 0.50 +/- 0.23 microm, 0.07 +/- 0.22 microm, 0.32 +/- 0.13 microm, and 0.14 +/- 0.14 microm, respectively. There was a statistical difference in aberrations between the 2 groups for the tilt and the coma aberrations (P<.05). There were more aberrations in the MA60AC IOL group. CONCLUSIONS: The design of the IOL influenced ocular aberrations after cataract surgery. There were more tilt and coma aberrations in the MA60AC IOL group.