Print This Page
Title	CORRECTING POST SURGICAL IRREGULAR ASTIGMATISM WITH MULTIFOCAL SOFT CONTACT LENSES
Program Number	105415
Author	Mitchell, Mark G OD, MBA ( Private Practitioner)
Coauthor(s)	N/A
Topic	Cornea and Contact Lens
Day	Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Time	9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Room
Abstract	BACKGROUND: Contact lens fitting of the post surgical cornea is generally thought of as correcting for irregular astigmatism by replacing the distorted corneal surface with the more regular surface of a contact lens. However, the post-surgical cornea can also be thought of as a multifocal refracting surface containing a variety of refractive powers. This situation exists with PRK, LASIK, RK, limbal relaxing incisions and other surgical procedures. Rather than attempting to improve the monofocal image quality in such a patient, it is possible to leverage a patient's existing corneal multifocality to enhance patient distance and/or near vision. CASE REPORT(S): A 55 year old patient presented on referral for contact lens correction for irregular astigmatism. She was status post bilateral LASIK, bilateral upper lid ptosis repair and bilateral cataract surgery with limbal relaxing incisions. She had previously been unsuccessful with eyeglasses, due to the reduction in quality in her vision and her surgically-induced anisometropia. In addition, her correction was unstable. This patient was not successful with eyeglass, rigid lens and single vision soft lens correction, but was successful with silicone hydrogel (SIHY) multifocal lens correction. CONCLUSIONS: An alternative method of correcting post surgical "irregular" astigmatism may involve recognizing that the patient's corneal surface is a multifocal surface. Leveraging the existing corneal multifocality with soft multifocal lenses is another way to improve patient vision. Further research is needed to determine which optical abberations are most amenable to such treatment.
Key Words	Contact lenses - multifocal/monovision, Corneal topography, Refractive surgery