Adding another twist to presbyopia correction, Japanese researchers suggest pseudophkic patients who have monofocal intraocular lenses (IOL) have a good chance of success in correcting their presbyopia with a multifocal soft contact lens.

Their study, published in Eye & Contact Lens, included 11 patients with monofocal IOL implants who wore disposable multifocal soft lenses daily for three months.

The researchers measured patients’ binocular visual acuity at a distance

between 0.3m and 5m at one and three months and compared the results before and during multifocal contact lens wear. Additionally, binocular contrast sensitivity testing was conducted under mesopic and photopic illuminations at one month.

The team noted the approximate refraction spherical equivalent before the multifocal lenses was -0.36D. Following testing, investigators used multifocal add powers of +1.25D, +2.00D and +2.50D in one, 16 and five eyes, respectively.

They found the average binocular visual acuity during multifocal contact lens wear was 20/20 or better between 0.5m and 5m and was significantly improved at 0.7m or less. They also found no change in mesopic contrast sensitivity, but researchers did observe a degradation of photopic contrast sensitivity at 18 cycles during multifocal contact lens wear.

The use of multifocal soft contacts was effective for presbyopia correction in pseudophakic subjects with monofocal IOLs, and favorable binocular vision could be obtained in a range from distance to intermediate, the researchers said.

The investigators also suggested the IOL/contact lens combination could be as effective as multifocal or extended depth-of0focus IOLs for these patients.

The limitations of the study included its small patient size. Additionally, the researchers noted the majority of patients were women (10 out of 11) and they did not measure the diameter and center of pupil under mesopic and photopic illuminations.