To assess the effect of multifocal soft contact lenses on the correction of visual acuity in patients with presbyopia.

Forty-four patients ranging from 45 to 60 years of age visited the Department of Ophthalmology at St. Mary's Hospital and the Department of Ophthalmology at Korea University's Anam Hospital between August 2005 and February 2006. The visual acuity of patients who used Morning QI-plus (multifocal soft contact lenses, Interojo, Republic of Korea) was analyzed at, before, and immediately after correction, then one week and one month after correction. Symptoms that developed after Morning QI-plus application, slit lamp microscopy results, and patient satisfaction were quantified into scores and compared.

Far and near visual acuity before correction were 0.240±0.432 and 0.415±0.227, respectively. They were 0.025±0.048 and 0.118±0.094 immediately after correction was initiated, 0.019±0.046 and 0.102±0.055 after one week, and 0.015±0.042and 0.111±0.086 after one month. Both far and near visual acuity showed statistically significant improvement after correction ( p <0.05).

After correction, visual acuity improved by more than 2 Snellen lines in 84.1% of patients. We conclude that multifocal soft contact lenses are effective for presbyopia.