Glare disability devices for cataractous eyes: a consumer's guide

We evaluated five commercially available glare testers to determine how accurately each device predicted outdoor Snellen acuity in cataract patients. Predicted outdoor Snellen acuity was compared to actual Snellen outdoor acuity for the Miller-Nadler glare tester, the brightness acuity tester (BAT), the InnoMed true vision analyzer (TVA), the VisTech VCT 8000, and the EyeCon 5. All five devices were evaluated in a single series of eyes. We ranked the five glare testers as follows based upon their ability to predict outdoor Snellen acuity within one Snellen line: (1) BAT (73%), (2) TVA (69%), (3) VisTech VCT 8000 (56%), (4) Miller-Nadler (47%), and (5) EyeCon 5 (15%). All five devices were also evaluated for their capacity to provide false negative or false positive results and for testing time per eye, test difficulty level for the patient, versatility, upgrading capacity, examining room adaptability, and price. We concluded that glare testing of cataract patients is necessary to measure visual disability and that glare testing devices vary in their ability to predict outdoor vision.