Reduction of corneal astigmatism at cataract surgery

We studied the effect at three months of four transverse astigmatic keratotomy incisions (TAK) performed prior to phacoemulsification in 61 eyes on corneal astigmatism. The optical zone was varied in each case depending upon the magnitude of preoperative astigmatism. The eyes were compared to 105 control eyes in which no astigmatic incisions were performed to assess the estimated effect of the TAK incisions. Keratometry readings were taken preoperatively and three months postoperatively. Surgically induced astigmatism was measured using vector corrected astigmatism. Improvement in astigmatism was reported in all three optical zone groups, but the astigmatism was undercorrected in each. No complications affecting vision were reported, indicating that TAK may be a safe way to reduce postoperative astigmatism when combined with phacoemulsification.