Accommodation and presbyopia : part 1: physiology of accommodation and development of presbyopia

Accommodation is a dynamic change in the dioptric power of the eye. According to the widely accepted and experimentally confirmed theory of Helmholtz, it is achieved by release of zonular tension with contraction of the ciliary muscle and consecutive modelling of the shape of the crystalline lens by the elastic lens capsule. The ability to accommodate is gradually lost with age (presbyopia). Because of difficulties in examining the accommodative apparatus in vivo, many theories, in part contradictory, about the mechanism of accommodation and the origin of presbyopia have been developed. In recent years experimental studies have greatly increased the knowledge about the acommodative apparatus and suggest a multifactorial aetiology of presbyopia. A better understanding of the physiology of accommodation and presbyopia can contribute to the development of effective treatments.