Experimental increase in accommodative potential after neodymium:yttrium–aluminum–garnet laser photodisruption of paired cadaver lenses

Loss of lens elasticity is one of several proposed mechanisms responsible for the decline in accommodation with age and is the most accepted explanation for presbyopia. We wish to confirm the lens elasticity premise and attempt to experimentally reverse the age-dependent loss of accommodative potential as measured by polar strain. Experimental human autopsy eye study. Thirty-six cadaver lenses were tested to determine the age-dependent polar strain. Eleven lens pairs were then tested with one lens treated with neodymium:yttrium–aluminum–garnet (Nd:YAG) laser and the other left untreated before rotation as an age control. Using a custom-made rotational apparatus (described by Fisher, 1971), freshly excised cadaver lenses (