Clinical Efficacy of Pinhole Soft Contact Lenses for the Correction of Presbyopia

ABSTRACT

We investigated the clinical efficacy of pinhole soft contact lenses for presbyopia correction. Twenty participants with presbyopia wore pinhole soft contact lenses in the non-dominant eye for 2 weeks. Manifest refraction, Goldmann binocular visual field tests, contrast sensitivity tests, and biomicroscopic examinations were performed along with evaluations of questionnaire responses and the binocular corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), distance-corrected near visual acuity (DCNVA), distance-corrected intermediate visual acuity (DCIVA), and depth of focus, both before and after 2 weeks of lens wear. DCNVA at 33 and 40 cm and DCIVA at 50 and 70 cm showed significant improvements after pinhole lens wear (P-value: <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, and 0.046, respectively), with no changes in the binocular visual field and binocular CDVA. Contrast sensitivities under photopic and mesopic conditions decreased at some frequencies; however, visual function questionnaire scores significantly improved (all P-values <0.001). These findings suggest that pinhole contact lenses effectively correct presbyopia.

Keywords:

• Contact lens
• pinhole
• presbyopia
• pupil
• depth of focus

CONTRIBUTORS

All authors have read and approved this version of the manuscript. S.Y.P., Y.J.C., J.W.J., M.J.C., E.K.K., K.Y.S., and T.I.K. participated in manuscript drafting, study design, data collection and screening, data analysis, evidence synthesis, and manuscript revision. S.Y.P., J.W.J., and T.I.K. participated in literature search, data collection, data analysis, evidence synthesis, and manuscript drafting. S.Y.P., Y.J.C., and T.I.K. participated in hypothesis generation, evidence synthesis, and manuscript revision. S.Y.P., Y.J.C., J.W.J, M.J.C., E.K.K., K.Y.S., and T.I.K. participated in study design, data collection and screening, and manuscript revision.

FUNDING

This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI18C1111).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The authors report no potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI18C1111).