Accommodation and presbyopia : part 2: surgical procedures for the correction of presbyopia

There are two basic approaches for the surgical correction of presbyopia: increasing depth of focus (e.g. by means of multifocal laser abrasion of the cornea), Or restoring accommodation in the sense of a dynamic change in ocular refraction (accommodative intraocular lenses, scleral expansion). Pseudoaccommodative procedures are able to achieve satisfactory near vision, albeit at the price of lower performance in the intermediate range and decreased image quality. The restoration of accommodation remains problematic, partly because the mechanism of accommodation and the development of presbyopia are still not fully understood. Some surgical procedures are based on concepts, the validity of which is not confirmed or which even contradict experimental evidence. Thus, it is necessary to assess the results and presumed mechanisms critically and objectively.