Refractive surgery, optical aberrations, and visual performance.

Visual optics is taking on new clinical significance. Given that current refractive procedures can and do induce large amounts of higher order ocular aberration that often affects the patient's daily visual function and quality of life, we can no longer relegate the considerations of ocular aberrations to academic discussions. Instead, we need to move toward minimizing (not increasing) the eye's aberrations at the same time we are correcting the eye's spherical and cylindrical refractive error. These are exciting times in refractive surgery, which need to be tempered by the fact that after all the research, clinical, and marketing dust settles, the level to which we improve the quality of the retinal image will be guided by the trade-off between cost and the improvement in the quality of life that refractive surgery offers.