Characterization of Corneal Indentation Hysteresis.

Corneal indentation is adapted for the design and development of a characterization method for corneal hysteresis behavior - Corneal Indentation Hysteresis (CIH). Fourteen porcine eyes were tested using the corneal indentation method. The CIH measured in enucleated porcine eyes showed indentation rate and intraocular pressure (IOP) dependences. The CIH increased with indentation rate at lower IOP (<; 25 mmHg) and decreased with indentation rate at higher IOP (> 25 mmHg). The CIH was linear proportional to the IOP within an individual eye. The CIH was positively correlated with the IOP, corneal in-plane tensile stress and corneal tangent modulus (E). A new method based on corneal indentation for the measurement of Corneal Indentation Hysteresis in vivo is developed. To our knowledge, this is the first study to introduce the corneal indentation hysteresis and correlate the corneal indentation hysteresis and corneal tangent modulus.