Background: We compared the efficacy between trifocal and bifocal diffractive intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Methods: Through PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL, we searched potentially relevant articles published from 1990 to 2018. Defocus curves, visual acuities (VAs) were measured as primary outcomes. Spectacle dependence, postoperative refraction, contrast sensitivity (CS), glare, and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) were measured as secondary outcomes. Effects were pooled using random-effects method. Results: We included 11 clinical trials, with a total of 787 eyes (395 subjects). The trifocal IOL group showed better binocular distance VA corrected with defocus levels of -0.5, -1.0, -1.5, and -2.5 diopter than the bifocal IOL group (All P <= 0.004). The trifocal IOL group showed better monocular uncorrected distance and intermediate VAs (mean difference [MD -0.04 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR]; 95% confidence interval [CI), -0.07, -0.01; P= 0.006 and MD, -0.07 logMAR; 95% CI, -0.13, -0.01; P= 0.03, respectively). Postoperative refraction, glare, CS, and HOAs were not significantly different from each other. Conclusion: The overall findings indicate that trifocal diffractive IOL implantation is better than the bifocal diffractive IOL in intermediate VA, and provides similar or better in distance and near VAs without any major deterioration in the visual quality.
