IOL Power Calculation after Refractive Surgery

Cataract surgery is evolving more and more into a refractive procedure with high expectations in terms of visual rehabilitation. Especially patients presenting after previous Excimer laser corneal surgery are used to being independent from glasses. Unfortunately, some of these patients showed unexpected hyperopic surprises after cataract surgery in the past. The changes of corneal radii and keratometer index as well as the inaccurate prediction of the postoperative intraocular lens (IOL) position using different formulas were determined as error sources which led to a reduced IOL power calculation in dioptres. Several methods have been proposed to solve this problem which can be divided in two groups. On the one hand, there are methods that depend on refraction and biometry values before the initial treatment (e. g., clinical history, Feiz-Mannis, double-K, adjusted effective refractive power [EffRadj]-, cornea bypass/Wake Forest methods as well as correction factors to adjust K-values) and on the other hand procedures that only need current pre-cataract surgery measurements (e. g., contact lens method, corneal topography systems, ray tracing, aphakic refraction technique, correction factors to adjust K-values and new formulas including Haigis-L or BESSt and recently a novel pachymetry method). This review describes these procedures and analyses their strengths and weaknesses. The number of presented methods emphasises already that no perfect solution has been determined so far that would be valid for every patient. Some methods do provide a good predictability; however, individual deviations can occur. In general, it is advisable to inform the patient about the higher risk for an inaccurate IOL power calculation. It can be helpful to compare the results of different methods indicating the importance to provide all required individual data by the refractive surgeon already.