Monochromatic Ocular Aberrations Distribution in Professional Pilots

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: To report monochromatic ocular aberrations distribution in a population of professional French military and civilian pilots with uncorrected monocular visual acuity of 20/20. Methods: Inclusion criteria were: professional civilian or military pilot, monocular uncorrected visual acuity of 20/20 or more (as determined with a Landolt ring chart), sphere measurement less than 0.5 diopter and cylinder less than 0.75 diopter. Wavefront measurements were performed with a high resolution Shack–Hartmann based wavefront sensor before and after pupil dilation (5% Neosynephrin) in 25 professional pilots. Results:Total ocular aberrations RMS for 5 and 7 mm pupil diameter was 0.63 and 1.52 µm, respectively. Higher order aberrations measured at 3, 5 & 7 mm pupil accounted for 5, 9 & 20% of total RMS, respectively. Spherical aberration was the most common aberration observed in pilots with a natural "SuperVision". Correlation between both eyes was significant for defocus, astigmatisms with mirror symmetry (enantiomorphism), aberrations with oblique variation axis (vertical coma, trefoil at 30 degree) and spherical aberration (p<0.05). Conclusions: In this specific population, higher order aberrations do exist. Natural "SuperVision" is not correlated with an absence of higher order ocular aberrations. Some associations of selected ocular aberrations may even be beneficial to enhance retinal image quality. Ocular aberrations distribution in this population may help to define new photopic and mesopic visual performance standards for occupational purposes.

Keywords: refractive surgery: optical quality