Influence of Patient Age at Surgery on Long-Term Corneal Astigmatic Change Subsequent to Cataract Surgery

To examine whether long-term corneal astigmatic change with age after cataract surgery depends on patient age at the time of surgery, and to evaluate whether this change is different from that in eyes that did not undergo surgery.

Retrospective cohort study.

A total of 437 eyes that underwent phacoemulsification with a 4.1-mm horizontal corneoscleral incision more than 11 years ago and 600 control eyes without surgery were divided into 4 age groups: (1) 60 years or younger, (2) 61-65 years, (3) 66-70 years, and (4) 71 years or older. The corneal astigmatic change between baseline and 5 years after baseline, between 5 and 10 years, and between baseline and 10 years, as calculated using the polar (x-y) coordinate analysis, were compared among the age groups and between eyes with and without surgery.

Corneal astigmatic change, expressed as x- and y-coordinates, showed an against-the-rule change of 0.2-0.4 diopter during the 10 years in all age groups of the surgery and nonsurgery groups. Using multivariate analysis of variance, the mean x- and y-coordinates did not differ significantly among the age groups in either the surgery or nonsurgery groups (P ≥ .4112). Furthermore, the mean x- and y-coordinates did not differ significantly between the surgery and nonsurgery groups in any age group (P ≥ .1359).

Long-term corneal astigmatic change with age after cataract surgery does not differ significantly depending on patient age at the time of surgery, and is comparable to that of eyes without surgery.