New trifocal IOL shows high patient satisfaction rates

In this paper, researchers report the vision-related quality of life (QOL) in patients who received a new PanOptix trifocal IOL.

Study design

Researchers administered the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-14 (VF-14) to 48 consecutive patients in Turkey who received the AcrySof IQ PanOptix trifocal IOL (Alcon). The grading scale ranged from 0 (no difficulty) to 4 (impossible to perform). The monocular and binocular implantation results were compared in a subgroup of 14 patients who had at least 3 months between their first and second eye surgery and took the survey twice.

Outcomes

The mean uncorrected distance, intermediate and near visual acuity were logMAR 0.05, 0.11 and 0.09, respectively. Patients reported reading small print (0.94), night driving (0.89) and doing fine handwork (0.64) to be the most difficult tasks. Three months after binocular implantation, the mean VF-14 score was less than 1 (i.e., a little difficult) for all questionnaire items.

When compared with monocular implantation, the VF-14 scores were higher for patients with binocular implantation, and reached statistical significance for fine handwork and computer use.

Limitations

This is a small, nonrandomized study and there was no control group for comparison. The VF-14 questionnaire was not administered preoperatively.

Clinical significance

This trifocal IOL is not yet available in the United States but is expected to be soon. The results on different domains of the VF-14 questionnaire will help surgeons know what to expect when they counsel patients.