Cataract surgery with mIOL implantation generally results in improved CS in patients with and without glaucoma [12]. The results of the present study demonstrate that cataract surgery with MIOL or mIOL implantation can improve CS in patients with PAC/PACG. It was not until the 1980s that MIOLs started being used for cataract surgery. Several studies confirmed that MIOLs provide good near and distance visual acuity, more spectacle independence, and high patient satisfaction [13]. In contrast, MIOLs can also produce unwanted optical effects, including halos, glare, and decreased CS [10, 14, 15]. A decrease in resolution of visual quality associated with MIOLs is measured by reduced CS. Multifocal optics distribute light through several foci, so CS is reduced and glare disability increased when the image of a distance focus is overlapped by the out-of-focus images generated from the multifocal design [16]. The increased depth of focus experienced after MIOL implantation is usually obtained at the expense of image clarity. However, it has been proposed that this reduction in CS may be significant in eyes with preexisting impairment of CS [17].
The positive effect of cataract surgery on CS may be to some degree negated by a loss of CS at low spatial frequencies after MIOL implantation. In our study, the postoperative CS improved significantly in patients who received MIOLs, and the postoperative CS of MIOLs was comparable to those of mIOLs. Few studies have demonstrated the benefits of MIOLs in eyes with concomitant ocular disease, especially glaucoma. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the use of MIOLs in angle-closure eyes. There are some anatomical characteristics associated with age and angle-closure, such as short axial length, thick pigmented iris, and increased thickness of the crystalline lens [18]. Cataract surgery in angle closure provides the opportunity to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ by restoring vision and eliminating a narrow angle [19]. Cataract surgery also helps to prevent or delay progression along the PAC spectrum, and reduces the incidence of PACG, particularly in regions where angle-closure is prevalent.
Improvement in glaucoma control after cataract surgery was reported, and the observed improvement was found to be more pronounced in angle-closure than in open-angle glaucoma [7, 13]. Our study demonstrates the positive effect of cataract surgery in PAC/PACG, including deepening of the ACD and IOP reduction. Deepening of the ACD and relief of the crowding angle were hypothesized to result in improvement of aqueous outflow with subsequent IOP reduction [13, 20]. It should be noted that we included only PAC and PACG with mild glaucomatous optic neuropathy and well-controlled IOP without significant visual field loss in order to reduce the likelihood of VF progression after cataract surgery. Teichman and Ahmed recommended considering some specific glaucoma patients as candidates for MIOL implantation, including glaucoma suspects, ocular hypertensive patients without optic disc or visual field damage, and well-controlled glaucoma patients with early or mild visual field damage [10]. Our study showed improvement in postoperative visual acuity, and there was no significant difference in uncorrected distance visual acuity between the MIOL and mIOL groups. This same finding was previously reported from a study that compared MIOLs and mIOLs in nonglaucomatous eyes [13]. The present study found the postoperative CS to be highest at 3 CPD in the mIOL group, and at 6 CPD in the MIOL group. CS was lower in the MIOL group than in the mIOL group at all spatial frequencies (1.5–18 CPD), especially at 3 CPD, but the difference was not statistically significant. Kim, et al. reported CS outcome to be significantly lower in the MIOL group than in the mIOL group [11]. However, those previous studies investigated the performance of previous spherical MIOLs. With the introduction of aspheric MIOLs, some of the loss of CS may be ameliorated [13]. The mIOLs used in this study were aspheric IOLs, which reduce spherical aberration by counteracting corneal sphericity that increases with aging. The MIOLs were diffractive aspheric IOLs, which have a posterior diffractive surface to decrease spherical aberration produced by multifocality resulting in less CS loss [13].
Even though eyes with MIOLs were previously reported to experience reduced CS, this loss is not perceived as functionally significant in normal eyes, and it is counterbalanced by improvement in CS from cataract surgery, uncorrected near visual acuity, and depth of focus [21]. Furthermore, patients with cataract and glaucoma may have already grown accustomed to preoperative CS reduction, which increases the likelihood that they would not notice or be affected by the small loss of CS from MIOLs [17, 22]. This suggests that the slight decrease in CS in the MIOL group compared to the mIOL group in our study may not be clinically significant.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, we were forced to exclude several patients who were unable to produce reliable CS, either preoperatively or postoperatively, due to the complicated CS testing process. This resulted in our having a much smaller sample size than we had anticipated. Second, the IOL models used in this study included 2 different models in each group, and these two different models may exert different effect on CS. Third, we did not test binocular visual function, which may cause negative or positive effect on visual quality and patient satisfaction. Fourth and last, the follow-up CS measurement was performed during the short-term follow-up when there was no posterior capsular opacity and/or completed brain adaptation – both of which could affect CS and visual quality.