gms | German Medical Science

To get comparable results for patients with the accommodative 1 CU posterior chamber lens, measurements in healthy, phacic eyes were nesessary.

The study included 120 normal eyes of 120 patients. The meanage of the 77 men was 39±18 years, the meanage of the 42 women was 40±16 Years. The inclusion criteria were: Age between 10 and 69 years, refraction < 2 D, astigmatism < 1.5 D and a best-corrected visual acuity > 0.8, no local medication. Exclusion criteria were a diabetes, a glaucoma, a cataract, a pseudoexfoliationsyndrome and traumas or previous surgery. Measurements included: subjective and objective refraction (D), the accommodation ability (D) with accommodometer and biometric parameters with the IOL-Master.

The best-corrected distance visual acuity was 0.04±0.6 D with a range of -1.5 D to 2.0 D. A lower visual acuity was associated with a lower accommodation ability (p <0.01). In associacion with the anterior chamber depth and the relation of anterior chamber depth and length of the eye, the accommodation ability fell with increasing age. The length of the eye did not correlate with the accommodation ability. The loss of accommodation ability per decade was 1.37 D. The highest decrease could be found between the age of 40 and 49 years. During the following years, the fall of accommodation ability was comparativeley small.

The increase of the lenses thicknes during life can implicate a correlation between the change of anterior chamber depth in relation to the length of the eye and a decreasing accomodation ability. Our results confirm Duanes hypothesis of accommodation (1922).