Effect of phenylephrine on static and dynamic accommodation

Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that changes in accommodation after instillation of Phenylephrine Hydrochloride (PHCl) observed in some studies could be caused by changes in optics. Methods: We performed two experiments to test the effects of PHCl on static and on dynamic accommodation in 8 and 6 subjects, respectively. Objective wavefront measurements were recorded of the static accommodation response to a stimulus at different distances or dynamic accommodation response to a sinusoidally moving stimulus (between 1 and 3 D of accommodative demand at 0.2 Hz). The responses were characterized using two methods: one that takes into account the mydriatic optical effects on the accommodation produced by higher-order aberrations of the eye and another that takes into account only power changes paraxially due to the action of the ciliary muscle and regardless of the pupil size. Results: When mydriatic optical effects were taken into account, differences in responses before and after PHCl. instillation were 0.51 +/- 0.53 D, and 0.12 +/- 0.15, for static and dynamic accommodation, respectively, and were statistically significant (p<0.039). When mydriatic optical effects were not taken into account, the differences in responses before and after PHCl instillation were -0.20 +/- 0.51 D, and -0.05 +/- 0.14, for static and dynamic accommodation, respectively, and were not statistically significant (p>0.313). Conclusions: The mydriatic effect of the PHCl causes optical changes in the eye that can reduce the objective and subjective measurement of accommodation. (C) 2018 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).