[Early postoperative corneal astigmatism. Comparison of various suture techniques]

We compared two suture techniques after phacoemulsification and implantation of a standard PMMA posterior chamber lens with a 7 mm intrascleral lamellar incision: the cross-stitch (double running) suture closure and the one-stitch technique. Two series with 100 patients each were examined. In the early postoperative period the astigmatism induced was 1.9 +/- 1.4 D in the cross-stitch group and 1.5 +/- 1.0 in the one-stitch group (P = 0.01). In the latter group, 20% more of the patients were found to have a moderate amount of astigmatism. Four weeks after surgery, however, there were no differences between the two groups. The induced astigmatism in both groups was 1.0 D.