Theoretical Analysis of Accommodation Amplitude and Ametropia Correction by Varying Refractive Index in Phaco-Ersatz

Phaco-Ersatz is a surgical procedure for restoring accommodation in which the presbyopic crystalline lens is replaced by a flexible polymer gel in the lens capsule. We assessed the feasibility of simultaneously correcting ametropia while restoring accommodation using Phaco-Ersatz by utilizing polymer gel of the appropriate refractive index. Computation results using paraxial equations and ray tracing on two model eyes indicate that although this approach might be feasible for the hypermetrope, its usefulness for correcting myopia is limited, principally due to significant reductions in the resultant amplitude of accommodation.