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Abstract
Laser surgery is becoming a method of choice for applicants who cannot become air force pilots due to their refractive status. A good visual performance outcome after refractive surgery could potentially drop due to the environmental change in the cockpit under the influence of G-force (G). A commercially available aberrometer was used to measure aberrations in normal healthy eyes of 19 pilots under +G
z
(G-force in head to toe direction) of up to + 3G
z
using the centrifuge of the German Air Force (GAF). There is a small but significant change in aberrations due to G-force acceleration from + 1G
z
to + 3G
z
in the following Zernike coefficients across the subject group: (p = 0.022), C
3¹ (p = 0.018),
(p = 0.022),
(p = 0.002). The testing procedure used under these special circumstances has been proven to give as accurate results under acceleration as under normal static conditions and is therefore appropriate for use in further studies. Baseline values for normal healthy eyes subjected to large G-forces have been established.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr H. Welsch and his outstanding team at the German Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine for their extensive organisational and technical support in the centrifuge operations. We would also like to thank WaveLight AG, Germany for providing the aberrometer for the study and especially Mr A. Ziel for his great support and technical assistance. We are also grateful to the pilots who acted as subjects in this study. We also wish to thank Dr L. Diaz-Santana for helpful discussions.