Abstract
Purpose :
Millions of presbyopes encounter difficulties with current corrective solutions, leading to vision and postural discomfort. We have developed adaptive eyeglasses offering continuous autofocus and study the qualities of this novel technology in terms of quality of vision and safety.
Methods :
We have conducted a pilot clinical investigation on a semi-integrated prototype of adaptive eyeglasses for the correction of presbyopia (see picture). A total of 40 confirmed presbyopic patients equipped with progressive lenses, or having at least once closely tried such lenses, were recruited. The study was open-label, crossover and two-arm. A comparative evaluation of quality of vision between the adaptive technology and the patient’s corrective solution was sought after, so both the prototype and the patient’s current corrective solution were involved. Regarding the study outcomes, first, safety was assessed through adverse events collected, second, performance was evaluated through visual acuity, field-of-view, vision comfort, kinetic visual skills, visual adaptation, general quality of vision and preference over current corrective solution, which were measured with controlled vision tests, questionnaires and patient feedbacks.
Results :
The vast majority of patients have immediately or quickly adapted to the new device. Only one minor adverse event was reported (the patient could still complete the test). Visual acuity was excellent with the prototype in more than 80% of all cases (logMAR of 0 or better for distance and intermediate vision, and, P2 or better for near vision), for the other cases, the loss of acuity was moderate (usually representing one line on the acuity chart) and fully accounted for. Intermediate field-of-view was better with the adaptive eyeglasses’ ergonomics than with the progressive lenses’. The test on daily life visual tasks has notably pointed out that kinetic skills could be a key differentiating factor. About the overall performance, an equal number of patients have preferred the new device and their usual corrective solution.
Conclusions :
We have demonstrated on a 40-patient population the ability to correct presbyopia with our adaptive technology and overcome the difficulties encountered with current corrective solutions, providing true pre-presbyopia like vision with automatic and continuous focusing.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.