A review of autorefractors.

The overall performance of autorefractors in this study as defined by reliability, validity and rejection rate statistics, is similar to other hospital based studies but lower than in an optometric clinic. The performance of individual autorefractors varies according to the interaction between the underlying optical/detector mechanism and the media and pathological changes of a given eye. The autorefraction data proves a useful complement to the refractive data gained by conventional techniques, notwithstanding the poorer performance of the autorefractors in the presence of senescent pathology.