Effect of intraocular lens decentration on retinal image contrast.

We describe an optical model of the eye that allowed the effect of intraocular lens (IOL) decentration on retinal image contrast to be photographically studied. Decentrations of varying degrees of severity were modeled to correlate the amount of aphakic pupillary area with the contrast of the resulting images as measured by a digital photometer. Image contrast was found to decrease linearly as the proportion of aphakic pupillary area increased. Human clinical correlates are discussed.