To evaluate changes in corneal and ocular high-order aberration, ocular fatigue, and tear break-up time (TBUT) before and after playing computer games and the correlations among the variables.

Thirty-nine normal healthy subjects played computer games for 1 hour. Ocular fatigue was evaluated with a questionnaire, TBUT was measured with slit-lamp biomicroscopy, and high-order aberrations were measured with a KR-1W aberrometer (Topcon Medical System, Inc., Tokyo, Japan) in each subject before and after playing computer games. The right eye was used for statistical analyses.

Subjective ocular fatigue (expressed as the interview score) increased from 4.23 ± 5.35 to 12.05 ± 8.68 after playing games ( p < 0.001) and TBUT decreased from 8.03 ± 6.43 sec to 4.90 ± 3.31 sec ( p < 0.001). Ocular high-order aberrations in the 4 mm and 6 mm zones were not significantly changed before and after playing games ( p = 0.150, p = 0.202, respectively). However, corneal high-order aberrations in the 4 mm and 6 mm zones were significantly increased after playing computer games ( p = 0.002, p = 0.002, respectively). Changes in TBUT, interview score, and corneal high-order aberration were not correlated with each other.

Playing computer games increased corneal high-order aberrations as well as subjective ocular fatigue and TBUT.