Normative Values of Corneal Spherical Aberration, Pupil Size, and Other Key Refractive and Topographic Parameters in a Large Cohort of Egyptian Cataract Surgery Candidates

PURPOSE: To determine the spherical aberration, pupil size, and other key refractive and topographic parameters in a large cohort of Egyptian cataract surgery candidates, and to investigate any existent relations between the spherical aberration and other possibly related parameters. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study that was conducted at Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt. The study was performed on the right eyes of 1658 cataract surgery candidates. The mean corneal spherical aberration [Z4] and the pupil diameter, both photopic [P. Pupil] and mesopic [M. Pupil], were measured by the Oculus Keratograph 3, while the white-to-white corneal diameter [WTW], average keratometric readings [average K], axial length measurements [AL] and Anterior Chamber Depth [ACD] were all obtained from the IOL Master 500. RESULTS: The mean age was 65 ± 11.3 years. The mean value of the Z4 was +0.26 ± 0.12 μm [95% Confidence Interval “CI” (0.2570–0.2681)]. The mean values of the measured parameters were: P. Pupil 2.43 ± 0.87 mm [95% CI (2.3867–2.4700)], M. Pupil 4.61 ± 0.91 mm [95% CI (4.5683–4.6557)], WTW 11.72 ± 0.44 mm [95% CI (11.6969–11.7394)], average K 43.89 ± 1.89 D [95% CI (43.7938–43.9701)], AL 24.23 ± 2.21 mm [95% CI (24.1118–24.3166)], and ACD 3.16 ± 0.43 mm [95% CI (3.1414–3.1827)]. Weak statistically significant correlations were found between the Z4 and each of age (r = 0.049, p = 0.044), average K (r = 0.191, p < 0.001), and ACD (r = 0.122, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed weaker relations between Z4 and both average K (beta coefficient= 0.091) and ACD (beta coefficient= 0.130), with an r(2) = 0.024. CONCLUSION: This is the first normative data report of corneal spherical aberration [Z4], pupil size, and related refractive and topographic parameters in an old Egyptian population. The detected correlations have a weak clinical relevance and negate the existence of significant relations between the Z4 and the studied refractive and topographic parameters.