Prospective comparison of the Heine retinometer with the Mentor Guyton-Minkowski potential acuity meter for the assessment of potential visual acuity before cataract surgery.

Various techniques and devices have been developed to aid in the assessment of potential visual acuity prior to cataract surgery. We report a prospective comparison of two such assessments, one made using a new instrument, the hand-held Heine retinometer (HR) (Heine Instruments, Germany), and the other using the Mentor Guyton-Minkowski potential acuity meter (PAM) (Mentor, Inc, Norwell, Mass). A total of 37 eyes were assessed using both instruments just before cataract surgery. Three eyes were excluded from analysis due to postoperative complications affecting visual acuity that could not have been predicted with either instrument. The false-negative rate was 44% for the PAM and 32% for the HR. There were no false-positive results with either instrument. Neither instrument was particularly accurate in predicting actual final visual acuity (r2 = 0.290 and 0.144 for the PAM and HR, respectively). The HR was deemed easier to use.