Long-term changes in visual outcomes and ocular morphometrics after myopic and toric phakic intraocular lens implantation: five- and 10-year results

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term refractive and visual, anterior chamber depth, and axial length (AL) changes and complications after rigid iris-fixated phakic intraocular lens (pIOL) implantation to treat myopia or astigmatism. Setting: University Eye Clinic Maastricht, Maastricht UMC+, the Netherlands. Design: Prospective case series. Methods: The study evaluated patients who had implantation of an Artisan myopic or toric iris-fixated pIOL as of January 1998. Changes were measured annually and reported after 1, 5, and 10 years postoperatively. Results: The study comprised 460 eyes (250 patients; mean age 41.1 years ± 10.7 [SD]). Over 10 years, the mean myopization was −0.79 diopters (D) (P < .001), with 52% of eyes within ±1.0 D of target. The mean increase in the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) over 10 years was 0.05 (P < .001); 95% of eyes had a CDVA of 20/40 or more and 7% lost 2 or more lines of CDVA. The mean logMAR uncorrected visual acuity (UDVA) increased by 0.14 over 10 years (P < .001); 96% had a UDVA 20/40 or better. The AL increased by 1.14 mm over 10 years (P = .009). Ten percent of pIOLs were explanted because of cataract formation after a mean of 97.9 ± 34.9 months. A higher preoperative age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08; P < .001) and longer AL (HR, 1.34; P < .001) were risk factors for shorter survival because of cataract formation. Conclusion: Ten years after rigid iris-fixated pIOL implantation, the CDVA and UDVA decreased significantly as a result of significant myopization caused by an increased AL unrelated to the pIOL