Keratoconic eyes with stable corneal tomography could benefit more from custom intraocular lens design than normal eyes

We investigated whether eyes with keratoconic corneal tomography pattern could benefit more from aberration correction with custom intraocular lenses (IOLs) than normal cataractous eyes despite the effect of misalignment on the correction of aberrations. Custom IOLs (cIOLs) were calculated for twelve normal and twelve keratoconic eyes using personalized numerical ray tracing models. The Stiles-Crawford weighted root-mean-square spot-size (wRMS) at the virtual fovea was evaluated for cIOLs and aberration-neutral IOLs (nIOLs) in a simulated clinical study with 500 virtual IOL implantations per eye and per IOL. IOL misalignment (decentration, tilt, rotation) and pupillary ectopia (4.5 mm iris aperture) were varied upon each virtual implantation. The nIOLs achieved average wRMS of 16.4 ± 4.3 μm for normal, and 92.7 ± 34.4 μm for keratoconic eyes (mean ± standard deviation). The cIOLs reduced the average wRMS to 10.3 ± 5.8 μm for normal, and 28.5 ± 18.6 μm for keratoconic eyes. The cIOLs produced smaller wRMS than nIOLs in most virtual implantations (86.7% for normal and 99.4% for keratoconic eyes). IOL misalignment resulted in larger wRMS variations in the keratoconus group than in the normal group. Custom freeform IOL-optics-design may become a promising option for the correction of advanced aberrations in eyes with non-progressive keratoconic corneal tomography pattern.