Corneal Astigmatism in Patients After Cataract Surgery: A 10-Year Follow-up Study

To report the long-term outcomes of corneal astigmatism after cataract surgery.

The study included 55 eyes of 46 patients who underwent cataract surgery with temporal 3-mm clear corneal incisions from January 2001 to December 2003. All patients underwent complete ophthalmological examination including keratometry at the preoperative visit and at 2 months and 10 years after surgery. Only those eyes that underwent a follow-up of 10 years or longer from the time of cataract surgery were enrolled. Arithmetic and vector analyses were performed to obtain the change in corneal astigmatism with advancing age.

The mean age of the patients was 59.11 ± 12.33 years (range: 18 to 75 years), and 58.7% of the patients were women. The mean follow-up period was 131.28 ± 14.36 months. The average magnitudes of surgically induced astigmatism and long-term astigmatism change were 0.66 ± 0.42 and 0.57 ± 0.47 diopters (D), respectively. The vector difference was 0.56 ± 0.55 D at 90° ± 0° between the preoperative and 2-month visits. However, there was no difference in vector values between postoperative 2 months and 10 years (0.00 ± 0.74 D at 0° ± 0°).

Patients with corneal astigmatism who underwent cataract surgery did not show a long-term against-the-rule change in corneal astigmatism during a 10-year follow-up. These results provide useful information when planning toric intraocular lens implantation in patients with corneal astigmatism. [J Refract Surg. 2016;32(6):404-409.].