Influential factors in optic nerve head biomechanics

Irreversible damage of the optic nerve bundles is the major concern in the study of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. In the efforts of developing a complete diagnostic system, it is essential to investigate the most dominant factors in optic nerve head biomechanics. A three-dimensional human eye model is developed in COMSOL Multiphy sics® for computational finite element analysis. A full-scale sensitivity analysis is carried out considering 14 input factors. A preliminary screening is done using Morris method [8] to determine the top 5 influential factors. Subsequently, linear and nonlinear effects of the top 5 factors are ranked by analysis of variance. Numerical results suggest that apart from intraocular pressure, scleral stiffness may remain the most dominant factor in biomechanical response of the lamina cribrosa as reported in previous studies [11, 17,18, 20, 23], followed by stiffness of the post-laminar neural tissue.