CONTRAST ACUITY AND CONTRAST SENSITIVITY AFTER BINOCULAR IMPLANTATIONOF MULTIFOCAL OR MONOFOCAL INTRAOCULAR LENSES

Background: Multifocal intraocular lenses show a reduction of contrast due to the simultaneous projection of different images to the retina. In this study we examined if there is also a loss of contrast in bila teral implantation of multifocal lenses. Material and methods: We exam ined 22 patients with bilateral AMO ARRAY multi focal intraocular lens and compared these to 20 patients with bilateral monofocal intraocula r lens. We performed a monocular and binocular examination of contrast acuity by means of Regan's contrast charts and contrast sensitivity b y means of B-VAT-II-SG-Video-acuity-tester. Results: Monocular examina tion of contrast acuity showed significant superiority of the monofoca l intraocular lens at the lowest contrast. Bilateral examination of co ntrast acuity did nor show any significant difference. Monocular contr ast sensitivity of the monofocal intraocular lens was significantly su perior to the multifocal intraocular lens at two spatial frequencies, but under the bilateral condition there was only a significant differe nce between the two lenses at the highest spatial frequency. Conclusio ns: Bilateral implantation of multifocal intraocular lenses enables co ntrast acuity and contrast sensitivity that comes very close to the pe rformance of the monofocal intraocular lenses.