Determining the optomechanical properties of accommodating gel for lens refilling surgery using finite element analysis and numerical ray-tracing

A key step in the design of an accommodating gel to replace the natural contents of the presbyopic human crystalline lens is to find the equivalent homogeneous mechanical and material properties of the gel that yield comparable optical response as the lens with gradient properties. This process is compounded by the interplay between the mechanical and optical gradient. In order to find uniform properties of the lens both gradients need to be considered. In this paper, numerical ray-tracing and finite element method (FEM) are implemented to investigate the effects of varying the uniform elasticity and refractive index on the accommodative amplitude. Our results show that the accommodative amplitude be expressed as a function of gel refractive index and Young's modulus of elasticity. In other words infinite sets of elasticity and refractive index exist that yield a certain amount of accommodation.