Study finds 13% of patients intolerant to presbyopia-correcting lenses

Although most patients adapt well to presbyopia-correcting intraocular lenses (PC-IOLs), about 13% experience intolerance, primarily due to blurry vision and photic symptoms like glare and halos, according to a presentation at the 2025 ASCRS Annual Meeting.

Researchers retrospectively reviewed records of 533 patients (1,015 eyes) who received trifocal, bifocal, or extended depth-of-field lenses. They evaluated satisfaction, visual quality, and symptoms such as glare, halos, and starbursts.

Overall, 86.6% of patients were classified as tolerant, but 13.3% reported significant issues, including blurry vision and photic phenomena. Monovision was notably more common in the intolerant group. These patients also had worse uncorrected distance vision and were more likely to report ongoing symptoms despite interventions.

Among those with intolerance, 18.3% required lens exchange. Although some improvement was seen with treatments like laser vision correction or IOL exchange, more than half of the intolerant patients continued to experience symptoms.

Reference
Snider M, et al. Prevalence of Presbyopia-Correcting Lens Intolerance (PCI). Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Annual Meeting; April 25–28, 2025; Los Angeles, CA.