Changes in corneal wavefront aberrations in microincision and small-incision cataract surgery

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Corneal Surgery
• Optical Quality Analysis

Background:

• Cataract surgery involves incisions that can alter corneal optics.
• Understanding the impact of incision size on corneal aberrations is crucial for visual outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effects of microincision cataract surgery (MICS) and small-incision cataract surgery (SICS) on anterior corneal wavefront aberrations.
• To evaluate how different incision sizes influence the optical quality of the cornea post-surgery.

Main Methods:

• A prospective randomized clinical study involving 36 eyes (MICS, 1.5 mm) and 38 eyes (SICS, 3.0 mm).
• Anterior corneal topography was measured pre- and post-operatively (3-6 months).
• Anterior corneal Zernike aberrations (up to 6th order) were calculated for a 6.0 mm central zone.

Main Results:

• MICS group showed significant changes in trefoil and tetrafoil aberrations.
• SICS group exhibited significant changes in trefoil, tetrafoil, oblique astigmatism, secondary oblique astigmatism, and vertical tetrafoil.
• SICS resulted in significantly greater changes in total and higher-order root mean square (RMS) aberrations compared to MICS.

Conclusions:

• Cataract surgery incision size significantly impacts corneal wavefront aberrations.
• MICS (1.5 mm) demonstrates an advantage over SICS (3.0 mm) in preserving corneal optical quality by minimizing incision-related aberrations.