Correction values for IOL power estimates

1. An ophthalmic method for determining relationships for calculating intraocular lens (IOL) power correction values, the method comprising:

obtaining estimates of a postoperative optical power of a plurality of eyes that have not undergone an IOL implant surgery;

obtaining measurements of the postoperative optical power of the plurality of eyes after the IOL implant surgery;

obtaining measurements of one or more characteristics of the plurality of eyes, the one or more characteristics comprising an eye axial length;

separating the plurality of eyes into a plurality of groups based upon the axial eye lengths; and

for each of the plurality of groups, determining a mathematical relationship for calculating IOL power correction values based on the one or more characteristics, the mathematical relationship reducing a prediction error value for the respective plurality of eyes in each group when applied to the corresponding estimates of the postoperative optical power, the prediction error value being based upon the respective differences between the estimates and measurements of the postoperative optical power for the plurality of eyes in each group.

2. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the same commercially-available IOL product is implanted into each of the plurality of eyes.

3. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of eyes has undergone a previous refractive surgery.

4. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the prediction error value comprises the average error for the estimates of the postoperative optical power, or wherein the prediction error value comprises the percentage of the plurality of eyes for which the postoperative optical power is outside a predetermined range.

5. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of eyes are separated into a plurality of groups at substantially equal axial length intervals.

6. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of eyes are separated into a plurality of groups having substantially equal numbers of eyes in each group.

7. The ophthalmic method of claim 6 , wherein the minimum number of eyes in each group is about 50.

8. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the mathematical relationship is determined using only a subset of the plurality of eyes in each of the plurality of groups.

9. The ophthalmic method of claim 8 , wherein the subset of the eyes is randomly selected.

10. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the mathematical relationship is determined using a random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm.

11. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein determining a mathematical relationship for calculating IOL power correction values comprises determining a coefficient for each of the one or more characteristics.

12. The ophthalmic method of claim 11 , wherein the coefficients are determined using regression.

13. The ophthalmic method of claim 11 , further comprising determining blended coefficients for use in blend zones adjacent boundaries between the plurality of groups, the blended coefficients comprising a combination of the coefficients corresponding to the groups on either side of each boundary.

14. The ophthalmic method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristics of the plurality of eyes further comprise at least one of: a measured aphakic optical power, a theoretical aphakic optical power, a corneal power, and a white-to-white distance.

15. The ophthalmic method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more characteristics further comprise a difference between the theoretical aphakic optical power and the measured aphakic optical power.

16. An ophthalmic instrument comprising:

a measurement device for measuring the aphakic optical power of a patient's eye; and

a processor having access to memory media storing instructions executable by the processor for,

receiving an indication of the aphakic optical power of the patient's eye from the measurement device,

determining an intraocular lens (IOL) power value based, at least in part, on the aphakic optical power of the patient's eye,

receiving a measured axial length value for the patient's eye,

selecting a mathematical relationship for calculating an IOL power correction value, wherein the mathematical relationship is based upon the axial length value and reduces a prediction error of the IOL power correction value for a group of eyes having similar axial length values as the axial length value,

determining an IOL power correction value based on the mathematical relationship and one or more characteristics of the patient's eye, and

selecting an IOL for the patient's eye based on the IOL power correction value.

17. The ophthalmic instrument of claim 16 , wherein the measurement device comprises a wavefront aberrometer and the aphakic optical power comprises a direct measurement of aphakic optical power.

18. The ophthalmic instrument of to claim 17 , wherein the wavefront aberrometer comprises a Talbot-moiré wavefront aberrometer.

19. The ophthalmic instrument of claim 16 , wherein the one or more characteristics of the patient's eye comprise at least one of: an axial length, a measured aphakic optical power, a theoretical aphakic optical power, a corneal power, and a white-to-white distance.

20. The ophthalmic instrument of claim 19 , wherein one of the one or more characteristics comprises a difference between the theoretical aphakic optical power and the measured aphakic optical power.

21. The ophthalmic instrument of claim 16 , wherein determining the IOL power correction value further comprises identifying one or more coefficients, each of the coefficients corresponding to one of the one or more characteristics of the patient's eye.

22. The ophthalmic instrument of claim 16 , wherein selecting the IOL for the patient's eye further comprises:

applying the IOL power correction value to an estimate of a postoperative optical power of the patient's eye.

23. An ophthalmic method comprising:

receiving a measured axial length value for the eye of a patient;

selecting a mathematical relationship for calculating an IOL power correction value, wherein the mathematical relationship is based upon the axial length value and reduces a prediction error of the IOL power correction value for a group of eyes having similar axial length values as the axial length value;

determining, with a processor, the IOL power correction value based on the mathematical relationship and one or more characteristics of the patient's eye; and

selecting an IOL for the patient's eye based on the IOL power correction value.

24. The ophthalmic method of claim 23 , wherein the one or more characteristics of the patient's eye comprise at least one of: an axial length, a measured aphakic optical power, a theoretical aphakic optical power, a corneal power, and a white-to-white distance.

25. The ophthalmic method of claim 24 , wherein one of the one or more characteristics comprises a difference between the theoretical aphakic optical power and the measured aphakic optical power.

26. The ophthalmic method of claim 23 , wherein determining the IOL power correction value further comprises identifying one or more coefficients, each of the coefficients corresponding to one of the one or more characteristics of the patient's eye.

27. The ophthalmic method of claim 23 , wherein selecting the IOL for the patient's eye further comprises:

applying the IOL power correction value to an estimate of a postoperative optical power of the patient's eye.

28. The ophthalmic method of claim 27 , wherein applying the IOL power correction value comprises adding the IOL power correction value to the estimate of the postoperative optical power of the patient's eye.

29. The ophthalmic method of claim 23 , wherein the IOL power correction value is determined using a refractive vergence formula.