Changes of corneal aberrations in sitting and supine positions.

Abstract

To examine the effect of posture change on corneal aberrations and corneal curvature. Observational case series. The Keratron topographer, improved to measure patients in the supine position, was used to measure the corneal aberrations and the curvature in nine healthy volunteers. The first measurement took place with the subject in the sitting position and the others in the supine position, immediately after assuming the supine position and then 30 minutes later. The total higher-order and spherical-like aberrations were significantly increased from the sitting position to the supine position (P=.011, and P=.044, Scheffé test). These results suggest that the increase in the higher-order aberration from the sitting to the supine position acts to limit the improvements in visual performance after customized refractive surgery based on wavefront measurement.